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THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  EDITION 

• 

VOLUME  40 

THE  CHRONICLES 

OF  AMERICA  SERIES 

ALLEN  JOHNSON 

EDITOR 

GERHARD  R.  LOMER 

CHARLES  W.  JEFFERYS 

ASSISTANT  EDITORS 


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4 


THE 
ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

A  CHRONICLE  OF  THE 

ORGANIZED  WAGE-EARNERS 

BY  SAMUEL  P.  ORTH 


LVXET 


NEW   HAVEN:    YALE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

•TORONTO:    GLASGOW.    BROOK    k   CO. 

LONDON:    HUMPHREY    MILFORD 

OXFORD     UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

1919 


Copyright,  1919,  by  Vale  University  Press 


CONTENTS 

I.    THE  BACKGROUND  Page     1 

II.    FORMATIVE    YEARS  "  19 

III.  TRANSITION  YEARS  "  40 

IV.  AMALGAMATION  "  63 
V.    FEDERATION  "  87 

VI.    THE  TRADE  UNION  "  112 

VII.    THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOOLS  "  133 

VIII.    ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  "  168 

IX.    THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.W.W.           "  188 

X.    LABOR  AND  POLITICS  "  220 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  "  261 

INDEX  •'  265 


▼ii 


I 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


SAMUEL  GOMPERS 

Photograph    by    Underwood    and    Underwood, 
New  York. 


TERENCE  V.  POWOrRLY 

F~om  an  engraving. 

URIAH  S.  STEPHENS 
From  an  engraving. 


Frontispiece 


Facing  page    80 


MITCHELL,   MORRISON,  AND  GOMPERS 

Three  of  the  most  capable  leaders  of  American 
labor  in  conference  in  April,  1909.    John  Mitchell 
and  Samuel  Gompers  seated,  Frank  Morrison 
standik  5.     Photograph  by  Underwoou  and  Un- 
derwood, New  York. 

STEEL-MILL  WORKERS  OF  TODAY 

A  chauce  group  which  exemplifies  the  wide  range 
of  present-day  American  labor.  Slovak,  Irish, 
German,  and  Polish  typesare  represented,  besides 
several  individuals  of  indeterminable  origin. 
Photograph  by  Lewis  W.  Hine. 

A   MINER  OF  THE  OLD   SCHOOL 

The  predominant  type  in  the  coal  mining  districts 
thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  now  largely  displaced 
by  Pole  and  Slovak.  Photograph  by  Lewis  W. 
Hine. 


Its 


"  m 


Ix 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  BACKGROUND 


Three  momentous  things  symbolize  the  era  that 
begins  its  cycle  with  the  memorable  year  of  1776: 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  steam  engine, 
and  Adam  Smith's  book,  The  Wealth  of  Naiions. 
The  Declaration  gave  birth  to  a  new  nation,  whose 
millions  of  acres  of  free  land  were  to  shift  the  eco- 
nomic equilibrium  of  the  world;  the  engine  mul- 
tiplied man's  productivity  a  thousandfold  and  up- 
rooted in  a  generation  the  customs  of  centuries: 
the  book  gave  to  statesmen  a  new  view  cf  econom- 
ic affairs  and  profoundly  influenced  the  course  of 
international  trade  relations. 

The  American  people,  as  they  faced  the  ap- 
proaching age  with  the  experiences  of  the  race 
behind  them,  fashioned  many  of  their  institutions 


*  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

and  laws  on  British  models.     This  is  true  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  subject  of  this  book,  the  rise  of 
labor  in  America,  cannot  be  understood  without 
a  preliminary  survey  of  the  British  industrial  sys- 
tem nor  even  without  some  reference  to  the  feu- 
dal system,  of  which  English  society  for  many  cen- 
turies bore  the  marks  and  to  which  many  relics  of 
tenure  and  of  class  and  governmental  responsi- 
bility may  be  traced.     Feudalism  was  a  society  in 
which  the  status  of  an  individual  was  fixed:  he  was 
underman  or  overman  in  a  rigid  social  scale  accord- 
ing as  he  considered  his  relation  to  his  superiors  or 
to  his  inferiors.     Whatever  movement  there  was 
took  place  horizontally,  in  the  same  class  or  ou  the 
same  social  level.    The  movement  was  not  vertical, 
as  it  so  frequently  is  today,  and  men  did  not  ordi- 
narily rise  above  the  social  level  of  their  birth,  never 
by  design,  and  only  perhaps  by  rare  accident  or 
genius.     It  was  a  little  world  of  lords  and  serfs:  of 
kmghts  who  graced  court  and  castle,  jousted  at 
tournaments,  or  fought  upon  the  field  of  battle; 
and  of  serfs  who  toiled  in  the  fields,  served  in  the' 
custle,  or.  as  the  retainers  of  the  knight,  formed  the 
crude  soldiery  of  medieval  days.     For  their  labor 
and  allegiance  they  were  clothed  and  housed  and 
fed.     Yet  though  there  were  feast  days  gay  with 


THE  BACKGROUND  s 

the  color  of  pageantry  and  procession,  the  worker 
was  always  in  a  servile  state,  an  underman  depen- 
dent upon  his  master,  and  sometimes  looking  upon 
his  condition  as  little  better  than  slavery. 

With  the  break-up  of  this  rigid  system  came  in 
England  the  emancipation  of  the  serf,  the  rise  of 
the  artisan  class,  and  the  beginnings  of  peasant 
agriculture.      That  pers'  nal  gravitation  which  al- 
ways draws  together  men  of  similar  ambitions 
and  tasks  now  began  to  work  significant  changes 
in  the  economic  order.     The  peasantry,  more  or 
less  scattered  in  the  country,  found  it  difficult  to 
unite  their  powers  for  redressing  their  grievances, 
although  there  were  some  pea.sant  revolts  of  no 
mean  proportions.     But  the  artisans  of  the  towns 
were  soon  grouped  into  powerful  organizations, 
called  guilds,  so  carefully  managed  and  so  well  dis- 
ciplined that  they  dominated  every  craft  and  con- 
trolled every  detail  in  every  trade.     The  relation  of 
master  to  journeyman  and  apprentice,  the  wages, 
hours,  quantity,  and  quality  of  the  output,  were  all 
minutely  regulated.     Merchant  guilds,  similarly 
constituted,  also  prospered.    The  magnificent  guild 
halls  that  nmain  in  our  day  are  monuments  of  the 
power  and  splendor  of  these  organizations  that 
made  the  towns  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  flourishing 


*  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

centers  of  trade,  of  handicrafts,  and  of  art.  As 
towns  developed,  they  dealt  the  final  blow  to  an 
agricultural  system  based  on  feudalism:  they  be- 
came cities  of  refuge  for  the  runaway  se  fs.  and 
their  charters,  insuring  political  and  economic  free- 
dom, gave  them  superior  advantages  for  trading. 

The  guild  system  of  manufacture  was  gradually 
replaced  by  the  domestic  system.     The  workman's 
cottage,  standing  in  its  garden,  housed  the  loom 
and  the  spinning  wheel,  and  the  entire  family  was 
engaged  in  labor  at  home.     But  the  workman 
thus  apparerf  !y  independent,  was  not  the  owner  of 
either  the  raw  material  or  the  finished  product.     A 
middleman  or  agent  brought  him  the  wool,  carriec 
away  the  cloth,  and  paid  him  his  hire.     Daniel 
Defoe,  who  made  a  tour  of  Britain  in  1724-6,  left 
a  picture  of  rural  England  in  this  period,  often 
called  the  golden  age  of  labor.     The  land,  he  says, 
"was  divided  into  small  inclosures  from  two  acres 
io  six  or  seven  each,  seldom  more:  every  three  or 
four  pieces  of  land  had  an  house  belonging  to  them. 
.  .  .  hardly  an  house  standing  out  of  a  speaking 
distance  from  another.  .  .  .    Wecoaldseeatevery 
house  a  tenter,  and  on  almost  every  tenter  a  piece 
of  cloth  or  kersie  or  shalloon.  .  .  .    At  every  con- 
siderable house  was  a  manufactory.  .  .  .     Every 


THE  BACKGROUND  5 

clothier  keeps  one  horse,  at  least,  to  carry  his  manu- 
factures to  the  market  and  every  one  generally 
keeps  a  cow  or  two  or  more  for  his  family.  By  this 
means  the  small  pieces  of  inclosed  land  about  each 
house  are  occupied,  for  they  scarce  sow  corn  enough 
to  feed  their  poultry.  .  .  .  f  he  houses  are  full  of 
lusty  fellows,  some  at  the  dye  vat,  some  at  the 
looms,  others  dressing  the  clothes;  the  women  or 
children  carding  or  spinning,  being  all  employed, 
from  the  youngest  to  the  oldest." 

But  more  significant  than  these  changes  was 
the  r  se  of  the  so-called  mercantile  system,  in  w  Iiich 
the  state  took  under  its  care  industrial  details  that 
were  formerly  regulated  by  the  town  or  guild. 
This  system,  beginning  in  the  sixteenth  century 
and  lasting  through  the  eighteenth,  had  for  its 
prime  object  the  upbuilding  of  national  trade. 
The  state,  in  order  to  insure  the  homogeneous 
development  of  trade  and  industry,  dictated  the 
prices  of  commodities.  It  prescribed  the  laws  of 
apprenticeship  and  the  rules  of  master  and  ser.-.'.it. 
It  provided  inspectors  for  passing  on  the  quality 
of  goods  offered  for  sale.  It  weighed  the  loaves, 
measured  the  cloth,  and  tested  the  silverware.  It 
prescribed  wages,  rural  and  urban,  and  bade  the 
local  justice  act  as  a  sort  of  guardian  over  the 


«  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

laborers  in  his  district.  To  relieve  poverty  poor 
laws  were  passed;  to  prevent  the  decline  of  pro- 
ductivity corn  laws  were  passed  fixing  arbitrary 
prices  for  grain.  For  a  time  monopolies  creating 
artificial  prosperity  were  granted  to  individuals 
and  to  corporations  for  the  manufacture,  sale,  or 
exploitation  of  certain  articles,  such  as  matches, 
gunpowder,  and  playing-cards. 

This  highly  artificial  and  paternalistic  state  was 
not  content  with  regulating  all  these  internal  mat- 
ters but  spread  its  protection  over  foreign  com- 
merce.    Navigation  acts  attempted  to  monopo- 
lize the  trade  of  the  colonies  and  especially  the  trade 
in  the  products  needed  by  the  mother  country. 
England  encouraged  shipping  and  during  this  pe- 
riod achieved  that  dominance  of  the  sea  which  has 
been  the  mainstay  of  her  vast  empire.    She  fos- 
tered plantp   ons  and  colonies  not  for  their  own 
sake  b'      that  they  might  be  tributaries  to  the 
wealth  of  the  nation.     An  absurd  importance  was 
attached  to  the  possession  of  gold  and  silver,  and  the 
ingenuity  of  statesmen  was  exhausted  in  designing 
lures  to  entice  these  metals  to  London.     Banking 
and  insurance  began  to  assume*  prime  importance. 
By  1750  England  had  sent  ships  into  every  sea  and 
had  planted  colonies  around  the  globe. 


THE  BACKGROUND  7 

But  while  the  mechanism  of  trade  and  of  govern- 
ment made  surprising  progress  during  the  mer- 
cantile period,  the  mechanism  of  production  re- 
mained in  the  slow  handicraft  stage.  This  was 
now  to  change.  In  1738  Kay  invented  the  flying 
shuttle,  multiplying  the  capacity  of  the  loom.  In 
1767  Hargreaves  completed  the  spinning-jenny, 
and  in  1771  Arkwright  perfected  his  roller  spinning 
machine.  A  few  years  later  Crompton  combined 
the  roller  and  the  jenny,  and  after  the  application 
of  steam  to  spinning  in  1785  the  power  loom 
replaced  the  hand  loom.  The  manufacture  of 
woolen  cloth  being  the  principal  industry  of  Eng- 
land, it  was  natural  that  machinery  should  first  be 
invented  for  the  spinning  and  weaving  of  wool. 
New  processes  in  the  manufacture  of  iron  and 
steel  and  the  development  of  steam  transportation 
soon  followed. 

Within  the  course  of  a  few  decades  the  whole 
economic  order  was  changed.  Whereas  many  cen- 
turies had  been  required  for  the  slow  development 
of  the  medieval  system  of  feudalism,  the  guild  sys- 
tem, and  the  haudicrafts,  now,  like  a  series  of 
earthquake  shocks,  came  changes  so  sudden  and 
profound  that  even  today  society  has  not  yet 
learned  to  adjust  itself  to  the  myriads  of  needs 


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8  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

and  possibilities  which  the  union  of  man's  nund 
with  nature's  forces  has  produced.     The  indus- 
trial revolution  took  the  workman  from  the  land 
and  crowded  him  into  the  towns.     It  took  the 
loom  from  his  cottage  and  placed  it  in  the  factory 
It  took  the  tool  from  his  hand  and  harnessed  it  to 
a  shaft     It  robbed  him  of  his  personal  skill  and 
joined  his   arm  of  flesh  to  an  arm  of  iron.     It 
reduced  him   from  a  craftsman  to  a  specialist, 
from  a  maker  of  shoes  to  a  mere  stitcher  of  soles. 
It  took  from  him,  at  a  single  blow,  his  interest  in 
the  workmanship  of  his  task,  his  ownership  of  the 
Iwols,  his  garden,  his  wholesome  environment,  and 
even  his  family.     All  were  swallowed  by  the  black 
maw  of  the  ugly  new  mill  town.     The  hardships  of 
the  old  days  were  soon  forgotten  in  the  horrors  of 
the  new.    For  the  transition  was  rapid  enough  to 
make  the  contrast  striking.     Indeed  it  was  so  rapid 
that  the  new  class  of  employers,  the  capitalists, 
found  httle  time  to  think  of  anything  but  increas- 
mg  their  profits,  and  the  new  class  of  employees 
now  merely  wage-earners,  found  that  their  long 
hours  of  monotonous  toil  gave  them  little  leisure 
and  no  interest. 

The  transition  from  the  age  of  handicrafts  to  the  ' 
era  of  machines  presents  a  picture  of  greed  that 


THE  BACKGROUND 


9 


tempts  one  to  bitter  invective.  Its  details  are  dis- 
passionately catalogued  by  the  Royal  Commissions 
that  finally  towards  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  inquired  into  industrial  conditions.  From 
these  reports  Karl  Marx  drew  inspiration  for  his 
social  philosophy,  and  in  them  his  friend  Engles 
found  the  facts  that  he  retold  so  vividly,  for  the 
purpose  of  arousing  his  fellow  workmen.  And 
Carlyle  and  Ruskin,  reading  this  official  record  of 
selfishness,  and  knowing  its  truth,  drew  their  power- 
ful indictments  against  a  society  which  would  per- 
mit its  eight-year-old  daughters,  its  mothers,  and 
its  grandmothers,  to  be  locked  up  for  fourteen 
hours  a  day  in  dirty,  ill-smelling  factories,  to  re- 
lease them  at  night  only  to  find  more  misery  in  the 
hovels  they  pitifully  called  home. 

The  introduction  of  machinery  into  manufactur- 
ing wrought  vast  changes  also  in  the  organization 
of  business.  The  unit  of  industry  greatly  increased 
in  siz<\  The  economies  of  organized  wholesale  pro- 
duction were  soon  made  apparent;  and  the  tend- 
ency to  increase  the  size  of  the  factory  and  to 
amalgamate  the  various  branches  of  industry  un- 
der corporate  control  has  continued  to  the  pres- 
ent. The  complexity  of  business  operations  also 
increased  with  the  development  of  transportation 


o! 


m 


til 


W  THE  AHMES  OP  LABOB 

and  the  expansion  of  the  empire  of  tmde.    A 

world  markettook  the  placeofh-old  town  m„fcet. 
and  the  world  market  necessitated  credit  on  a  new 
and  infinitely  larger  scale. 

No  less  important  than  the  revolution  .du,. 
toy  was  the  revolution  in  economic  theory  wuich 
accompamed  it.     Unlimited  competition  ^placed 

sZT     f:'r     ™ "'  *''*  ""^«'«ts.    Adam 
Smith  in  1776  espoused  the  cause  of  economic  lib- 
erty,  believing  that  if  business  and  industry  were 
unhampered  by  artificial  restrictions  they  would 
work  out  their  own  salvation.    His  pmnouncement 
was  scarcely  uttered  before  it  became  the  shilv 
boleU,  0,  statesmen  and  business  men.   The  revolt 
of  the  Amencan  colonies  hastened  the  general  ac- 
cepta^ce  of  this  doctrine,  and  England  soon  found 
hei^elf  committed  to  the  practice  of  eveiy  man 
ookmg  after  his  own  interests.    Freedom  of  con- 
tract,  freedom  of  trade,  and  freedom  of  thought 
were  vigorous  and  inspiring  but  often  misleadL 
phrases.     The  processes  of  specialization  and  cen 
trahzation  that  were  at  work  portended  the  grow- 
mg  power  of  those  who  possessed  the  means  to 
build  factories  and  ships  and  railways  but  not  nee- 
e^sarily  the  freedom  of  the  many.     The  doctrine  of 
lamezfatr.  assumed  that  power  would  bring  with 


THE  BACKGROUND 


11 


it  a  sense  of  responsibility.  For  centuries,  the  old- 
country  gentry  and  governing  class  of  England 
had  shown  an  appreciation  of  their  duties,  as  a 
class,  to  those  dependent  upon  them.  But  now 
another  class  with  no  benevolent  traditions  of  re- 
sponsibility came  into  power  —  the  capitalist,  a 
parvenu  whose  ambition  was  profit,  not  equity,  and 
whose  dealings  with  other  men  were  not  tempered 
by  the  amenities  of  the  gentleman  but  were  sharp- 
ened by  the  necessities  of  gain.  It  was  upon  such 
a  class,  new  in  the  economic  world  anu  endowed 
with  astounding  power,  that  Adam  Smith's  new 
formularies  of  freedom  were  let  loose. 

During  all  these  changes  in  the  economic  order, 
the  interest  of  the  laborer  centered  in  one  question : 
What  return  would  he  receive  for  his  toil?  With 
the  increasing  couiplexity  of  society,  many  other 
problems  presented  themselves  to  the  worker,  but 
for  the  most  part  they  were  subsidiary  to  the  main 
question  of  wages.  As  long  as  man's  place  was 
fixed  by  law  or  custom,  a  customary  wage  left  small 
margin  for  controversy.  But  when  fixed  status 
gave  way  to  voluntary  contract,  when  payment 
was  made  in  money,  when  workmen  were  free  to 
journey  from  town  to  town,  labor  became  both 
free  and  fluid,  bargaining  took  the  place  of  custom. 


ii  I 


I*  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

and  the  wage  controversy  began  to  assume  definite 
proportions.     As  early  as  1348  the  great  plague 
became  a  landmark  in  the  field  of  wage  dispuls. 
So  scarce  had  laborers  become  through  the  rav- 
ages of  the  Black  Death,  that  wages  rose  rapidly, 
to  the  akrm  of  the  employers,  who  prevailed  upon 
King  Edward  III  to  issue  the  historic  proclama- 
tion of  1349,  directing  that  no  laborer  should  de- 
mand and  no  employer  should  pay  greater  wages 
than  those  customary  before  the  plague.      This 
early  attempt  to  outmaneuver  an  economic  law 
by  a  legal  device  was  only  the  prelude  to  a  long 
senes  of  labor  laws  which  may  be  said  to  have  cul 
mmated  lu  the  great  Statute  of  Laborers  of  1562 
regulatmg  the  relations  of  wage-earner  and  em-' 
Ployer  and  empowering  justices  of  the  peace  to 
fix  the  wages  in  their  districts.     Wages  steadily 
decreased  dunng  the  two  hundred  years  in  which 
this  statute  remained  in  force,  and  poor  laws  were 
passed  to  bring  the  succor  which  artificial  wages 
made  necessary.     Thus  two  rules  of  arbitrary  gov- 
emment  were  meant  to  neutralize  each  other     It 
IS    he  usual  verdict  of  historians  that  the  estate 
of  labor  m  England  declined  from  a  flourishing 
condition  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries 
to  one  of  great  distress  by  the  time  of  the  Industrial 


I 

1^ 


THE  BACKGROUND  13 

Revolution.  This  unhappy  decline  was  probably 
due  to  several  causes,  among  which  the  most  im- 
portant were  the  arbitrary  and  artificial  attempts 
of  the  Government  to  keep  down  wages,  the 
heavy  taxation  caused  by  wars  of  expansion,  and 
the  want  of  coercive  power  on  the  part  of  labor. 

From  the  decline  of  the  guild  system,  wh.ch  had 
placed  labor  and  its  products  so  completely  in  the 
hands  of  tho  master  craftsman,  the  workman  had 
assumed  no  controlling  part  in  the  labor  bargain. 
Such  guilds  and  such  joumevman's  fraternities 
as  may  have  survived  were  practically  helpless 
against  parliamentary  rigor  and  state  benevoience. 
In  the  domestic  stage  of  production,  cohesion 
among  workers  was  not  so  necessary.  But  when 
the  factory  system  was  substituted  for  the  handi- 
craft system  and  workers  with  common  interests 
were  thrown  together  in  the  towns,  they  had  every 
impulsion  towards  organization.  They  not  only 
felt  the  need  of  sociability  after  long  hours  spent  in 
spiritless  toil  but  they  were  impelled  by  a  new 
consciousness  —  the  realization  that  an  inevitable 
and  profound  change  had  come  over  their  condi- 
tion. They  had  ceased  to  be  journeymen  con- 
trolling in  some  measure  their  activities :  mey  were 
now  merely  wage-earners.     As  the  realization  of 


"  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

this  adverse  change  came  over  them,  they  began 
to  resent  tb  unsanitary  and  burdensome  condi- 
t.ons  und.  hich  they  were  compelled  to  live  and 
to  wor .  60  actual  grievances  were  added  to  fear 
of  what  might  happen,  and  in  their  common  cause 
experience  soon  taught  them  unity  of  action  Par- 
harnent  was  petitioned,  agitations  were  organized 

meth  rf -L""'  "^"^^^*^''  ^"^  -^-  these' 
methods  failed,  machinery  was  destroyed,  factories 

were  burned    a„d  the  strike  became  a  common 
weapon  of  self-defense. 

Though  a  few  labor  organizations  can  be  traced 
as  far  back  as  1700.  their  growth  during  the  eight- 
eenth  century  was  slow  and  irregular.     There  was 
no  unity  in  their  methods,  and  they  were  known  by 
many  names,  such  as  associations,  unions,  union 
societies,  trade  clubs,  and  trade  societies.     These 
societies  had  no  legal  status  and  their  meetings 
were  usually  held  in  secret.     And  the  Webbs  fn 
their  mstor^  of  Trade  Unionism  allude  to  the 
traditions  of  "the  midnight  meeting  of  patriots  in 
the  corner  of  the  field,  the  buried  box  of  records, 
he  secret  oath,  the  long  terms  of  imprisonment  of 
the  leading  officials."     Some  of  these  tales  were 
unquestionably    apocryphal,    others    were    exae 
gerated  by  feverish  repetition.     But  they  indicate 


THE  BACKGROUND  W 

the  aversion  with  which  the  authorities  looked 
upon  these  combinations. 

There  were  two  legal  doctrines  long  invoked  by 
the  English  courts  against  combined  action  —  doc- 
trines that  became  a  heritage  of  the  United  States 
and  have  had  a  "ofoimd  eflFect  upon  the  labor 
movements  in  America.  The  first  of  these  was  the 
doctrine  of  conspiracy,  a  doctrine  so  ancient  that 
its  sources  are  obscure.  It  was  the  natural  prod- 
uct of  a  government  and  of  a  time  that  looked 
askance  at  all  combined  action,  fearing  sedition, 
intrigue,  and  revolution.  As  far  back  as  1305 
there  was  enacted  a  statute  defining  conspiracy  and 
outlining  the  offense.  It  did  not  aim  at  any  defi- 
nite social  class  but  embraced  all  persons  who  com- 
bined for  a  "malicious  enterprise."  Such  an  enter- 
prise was  the  breaking  of  a  law.  So  when  Parlia- 
ment passed  acts  regulating  wages,  conditions  of 
employment,  or  prices  of  commodities,  those  who 
combined  secretly  or  openly  io  circumvent  the  act, 
to  raise  wages  or  lower  them,  or  to  raise  prices  and 
curtail  markets,  at  once  fell  under  the  ban  of  con- 
spiracy. The  law  operated  alike  on  conspiring 
employers  and  conniving  employees. 

The  new  class  of  employers  during  the  early 
years  of  the  machine  age  eagerly  embraced  the 


.1 

J 

I 

f 

I 


«»./ 

V 


t«*J 


16  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

doctrine  of  conspiracy.    They  readily  brought  un- 
der the  legal  definition  the  secret  connivings  of 
the  wage-earners.     Political  conditions  now  also 
worked  against  the  laboring  class.     The  unrest  in 
the  colonies  that  culminated  in  the  independence  of 
America  and  the  fury  of  the  French  Revolution 
combined  to  make  kings  and  aristocracies  wary  of 
all  organizations  and  associations  of  plain  folk. 
And  when  we  add  to  this  the  fai'or  which  the  new 
employing  class,  the  industrial  masters,  were  able 
to  extort  from  the  governing  class,  because  of  their 
power  over  foreign  trade  and  domestic  finance,  we 
can  understand  the  compulsory  laws  at  length 
declaring  against  all  combinations  of  working  men. 
The  second  legal  doctrine  which  Americans  have 
inherited  from  England  and  which  has  played  a 
leading  r61e  in  labor  controversies  is  the  doctrine 
that  declares  unlawful  all  combinations  in  restraint 
of  trade.     Like  its  twin  doctrine  of  conspiracy,  it  is 
of  remote  historical  origin.     One  of  the  earliest 
uses,  perhaps  the  first  use.  of  the  term  by  Pariia- 
ment  was  in  the  statute  of  1436  forbidding  guilds 
and  trading  companies  from  adopting  by-laws  "in 
restraint  of  trade,"  and  forbidding  practices  in  price 
manipulations  "for  their  own  profit  and  to  the 
common  hurt  of  the  people."     This  doctrnie  thus 


THE  BACKGROUND 


17 


early  invoked,  and  repeatedly  reasserted  against 
combinations  of  traders  and  masters,  was  incorpor- 
ated in  the  general  statute  of  1800  which  declared 
all  combinations  of  journeymen  illegal.  But  in  spite 
of  legal  doctrines,  of  innumerpM;*  laws  and  court 
decisions,  strikes  and  combustions  i>)u!»!plied,  and 
devices  were  found  for  eva-  .1114  stututo'y  wages. 

In  1824  an  act  of  Paill-iiiicr^  removed  the 
general  prohibition  of  combinations  and  accorded 
to  workingmen  the  right  to  bargain  collectively. 
Three  men  were  responsible  for  this  noteworthy 
reform,  each  one  a  new  type  in  British  politics. 
The  first  was  Francis  Place,  a  tailor  who  had  taken 
active  part  in  various  strikes.  He  was  secretary 
of  the  London  Corresponding  Society,  a  powerful 
labor  union,  which  in  1795  had  twenty  branches  in 
London.  Most  of  the  officers  of  this  organization 
were  at  one  time  or  another  arrested,  and  some 
were  kept  in  prison  three  years  without  a  trial. 
Place,  schooled  in  such  experience,  became  a  radi- 
cal politician  of  great  influence,  a  friend  of  Ben- 
tham,  Owen,  and  the  elder  Mill.  The  second  type 
of  new  reformer  was  represented  by  Joseph  Hume, 
a  physician  who  had  accumulated  wealth  in  the 
India  Service,  who  had  returned  home  to  enter 
public  life,  and  who  was  converted  from  Toryism  to 


1^ 


U. 


«i . 


u 


> 


18  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

Radicalism  by  a  careful  study  of  financial,  political, 
and  industrial  problems.  A  great  number  of  re- 
form laws  can  be  traced  directly  to  his  incredible 
activity  during  his  thirty  years  in  Parliament. 
The  third  leader  was  John  R.  McCuUoch,  an  ortho- 
dox economist,  a  disciple  of  Adam  Smith,  for  some 
years  editor  of  The  Scotsman,  which  was  then 
a  violently  radical  journal  co5perating  with  the 
newly  established  Edinburgh  Review  in  advocating 
sociological  and  political  reforms. 

Thus  Great  Britain,  the  mother  country  from 
which  Americans  have  inherited  so  many  institu- 
tions, laws,  and  traditions,  passed  in  turn  through 
the  periods  of  extreme  paternalism,  glorified  com- 
petition, and  governmental  antagonism  to  labor 
combinations,  into  what  may  be  called  the  age  of 
conciliation.  And  today  the  Labour  Party  in  the 
House  of  Commons  ha'^  shown  itself  strong  enough 
to  impose  its  programme  upon  the  Liberals  and, 
through  this  radical  coalition,  has  achieved  a  pow- 
er for  the  working  man  greater  than  even  Francis 
Place  or  Thomas  Carlyle  ever  hoped  for. 


_J. 


CHAPTER  II 


FORMATIVE   YEARS 


America  did  not  become  a  cisatlantic  Britain,  as 
some  of  the  colonial  adventurers  had  hoped.  A 
wider  destiny  awaited  her.  Here  were  economic 
conditions  which  upset  all  notions  of  the  fixity  of 
class  distinctions.  Here  was  a  continent  of  free 
land,  luring  the  disaffected  or  disappointed  artisan 
and  enabling  him  to  achieve  economic  independ- 
ence. Hither  streamed  ceaselessly  hordes  of  immi- 
grants from  Europe,  constantly  shifting  the  social 
equilibrium.  Here  the  den^  -  d  for  labor  was  con- 
stant, except  during  the  r.  •  Tvals  of  financial 
stagnation,  and  here  the  vioor  of  opportunity 
swung  wide  to  the  energetic  and  able  artisan.  The 
records  of  A"iorican  industry  are  replete  with 
names  of  prominent  leaders  who  began  at  the 
apprentice's  bench. 

The  old  class  distinctions  brought  from  the  home 
country,  however,  had  survi\  ,a  for  many  years  in 

19 


i 
1 


*  If 


I 


m 


« 'I 


■J, 


ao  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

the  primeval  forests  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  and 
even  among  the  hills  of  New  England.  Indeed, 
until  the  Revolution  and  for  some  time  thereafter, 
a  man's  clothes  were  the  badge  of  his  calling.  The 
gentleman  wore  powdered  queue  and  ruffled  shirt; 
the  workman,  coarse  buckskin  breeches,  ponder- 
ous shoes  with  brass  buckles,  and  usually  a  leather 
apron,  well  greased  to  keep  it  pliable.  Just  before 
the  Ilevolution  the  lot  of  the  common  laborer  was 
not  an  enviable  one.  His  house  was  rude  and 
barren  of  comforts;  his  fare  was  coarse  and  without 
variety.  His  wage  was  two  shillings  a  day,  and 
prison  —  usually  an  indescribably  filthy  hole  — 
awaited  him  the  moment  he  ran  into  debt.  The 
artisan  fared  somewhat  better.  He  had  spent,  as 
a  rule,  seven  years  learning  his  trade,  and  his  skill 
and  energy  demanded  and  generally  received  a 
reasonable  return.  The  account  books  that  have 
'X)me  down  to  us  from  colonial  days  show  that  his 
handiwork  earned  him  a  fair  living.  This,  how- 
ever, was  before  machinery  had  made  inroads  upon 
the  product  of  cabinetmaker,  tailor,  shoemaker, 
locksmith,  and  silversmith,  and  when  the  main 
street  of  every  village  was  picturesque  with  the 
signs  of  the  crafts  that  maintained  the  decent 
independence  of  the  community. 


FORMATIVE  YEARS 


21 


Such  labor  organizations  as  existed  before  the 
Revolution  were  limited  to  the  skilled  trades.  In 
1648  the  coopers  and  the  shoemakers  of  Boston 
were  granted  permission  to  organize  guilds,  which 
embraced  both  master  and  journeyman,  and  there 
were  a  few  similar  organizations  in  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore.  But  these  were  not 
unions  like  those  of  today.  "There  are,"  says 
Richard  T.  Ely,  "no  traces  of  anything  like  a 
modem  trades  union  in  the  colonial  period  of  Ameri- 
can history,  and  it  is  evident  on  reflection  that 
there  was  little  need,  if  any,  of  organization  on  the 
part  of  labor,  at  that  time. " ' 

A  new  epoch  for  labor  came  in  with  the  Revolu- 
tion. Within  a  decade  wages  rose  fifty  per  cent, 
and  John  Jay  in  1784  writes  of  the  "wages  of  me- 
chanics and  laborers"  as  "very  extravagant." 
Though  the  industries  were  small  and  depended 
on  a  local  market  within  a  circumscribed  area  of 
communication,  they  grew  rapidly.  The  period 
following  the  Revolution  's  marked  by  consider- 
able industrial  restiveness  and  by  the  formation  of 
many  labor  organizations,  which  were,  however, 
benevolent  or  friendly  societies  rather  than  unions 
and  were  often  incoiporated  by  an  act  of  the 

•  The  Labor  Movement  in  America,  by  Richard  T.  Ely  (1005),  p.  36. 


■It 


1^ 

Mi   f   ft 


I 


Mto^ 


«2  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

legislature.    In  New  York,  between  1800  and  1810, 
twenty.four    such    societies    were    incorporated. 
Only  in  the  larger  cities  were  they  composed  of 
artisans  of  one  trade,  such  as  the  New  York  Ma- 
sons  Society  (1807)  or  the  New  York  Society  of 
Journeymen  Shipwrights  (1807).     Elsewhere  they 
included  artissns  of  many  trades,  such  as  the 
Albany   Mechanical   Society    (1801).     In   Phila- 
delphia the  cordwainers,  printers,  and  hatters  had 
societies.     In  Baltimore  the  tailors  were  the  first 
to  organize,  and  they  conducted  in  1795  one  of 
the  first  strikes  in  America.     Ten  years  later  they 
struck  again,  and  succeeded  in  raising  their  pay 
from  seven  shillings  sixpence  the  job  to  eight  shill- 
ings ninepence  and  "extras."    At  the  same  time 
the  pay  of  unskilled  labor  was  rising  rapidly,  for 
workers  were  scarce  owing  to  the  call  of  the  mer- 
chant marine  in  those  years  of  the  rising  splendor 
of  the  American  sailing  ship,  and  the  lure  of  west- 
ern lands.     The  wages  of  common  laborers  rose  to 
a  dollar  and  more  a  day. 

There  occurred  in  1805  an  important  strike  of 
the  Philadelphia  cordwainers.  Theirs  was  one  of 
the  oldest  labor  organizations  in  the  country,  and 
it  had  conducted  several  successful  strikes.  This 
particular  occasion,  however,  is  significant,  because 


i; 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  2S 

the  strikers  were  tried  for  conspiracy  in  the  mayor's 
court,  with  the  result  that  they  were  found  guilty  and 
fined  eight  dollars  each,  with  costs.  As  the  court  per- 
mitted both  sides  to  tell  their  story  in  detail,  a  full 
report  of  the  proceedings  survives  to  give  us,  as  it 
were,  a  photograph  of  the  labor  conditions  of  that 
time.  The  trial  kindled  a  great  deal  of  local  ani- 
mosity. A  newspaper  called  the  Aurora  contained 
inflammatory  accounts  of  the  proceedings,  and  a 
pamphlet  giving  the  records  of  the  court  was  wide- 
ly circulated.  This  pamphlet  bore  the  significant 
legend,  "It  is  better  that  the  law  be  knovvTi  and 
certain,  than  that  it  be  right  "  and  was  dedicated 
to  the  Governor  and  General  Assemblv  "with  the 
hope  of  attracting  their  particular  attention,  at  the 
next  meeting  of  the  legislature. " 

Another  early  instance  of  a  strike  occurred  in 
New  York  City  in  1809,  when  the  cordwainers 
struck  for  higher  wages  and  were  haled  before  the 
mayor's  court  on  the  charge  of  conspiracy.  The 
trial  was  postponed  by  Mayor  DeWitt  Clinton 
until  after  the  pending  municipal  elections  to  avoid 
the  risk  of  offending  either  side.  When  at  length 
the  strikers  were  brought  to  trial,  the  court-house 
was  crowded  with  spectators,  showing  how  keen 
was  the  puolic  interest  in  the  case.     The  jury's 


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24  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

verdict  of  "  guilty,"  and  the  imposition  of  a  fine  of 
one  dollar  each  and  costs   upon  the  defendants 
served  but  as  a  stimulus  to  the  friends  of  the  strikers 
to  gather  in  a  great  mass  meeting  and  protest  against 
"the  verdict  and  the  law  that  made  it  possible. 
In  1821  the  New  York  Typographical  Society, 
which  had  been  organized  four  years  earlier  by 
Peter  Force,  a  labor  leader  of  unusual  energy,  set  a 
precedent  for  the  vigorous  and  fearless  career  of 
its  modern   successor  by  calling  a  strike  in  the 
printing  office  of  Thurlow  Weed,   the  powerful 
politician,  himself  a  member  of  the  society,  be- 
cause he  employed  a  "rat,"  as  a  nonunion  worker 
was  called.     It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  the 
organizations  of  this  early  period  were  of  a  loose 
structure  and  scarcely  comparable  to  the  labor 
unions  of  today. 

Sidney  Smith,  the  brilliant  contributor  to  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  propounded  in  1820  certain 
questions  which  sum  up  the  general  conditions  of 
American  industry  and  art  after  nearly  a  half 
century  of  independence:  "In  the  four  quarters  of 
the  globe,"  he  asked,  "who  reads  an  American 
book.'  or  goes  to  an  American  play?  or  looks  at  an 
American  picture  or  statue?     What  does  the  world 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  25 

yet  owe  to  American  physicians  or  surgeons? 
What  new  substances  have  their  chemists  dis- 
covered? or  what  old  ones  have  they  analyzed? 
What  new  constellations  have  been  discovered  by 
the  cclescopes  of  Americans?  What  have  they 
done  in  mathematics?  Who  drinks  out  of  Ameri- 
can glasses?  or  eats  from  American  plates?  or  wears 
American  coats  or  gowns?  or  eeps  in  American 
blankets?" 

These  questions,  which  were  quite  pertinent, 
though  conceived  in  an  impertinent  spirit,  were 
being  answer^^^.  in  America  even  while  the  wittv 
Englishman  ,.  rraming  them.  The  water  power 
of  New  England  was  being  harnessed  to  cotton 
mills,  woolen  mills,  and  tanneries.  Massachu- 
setts in  1820  reported  one  hundred  and  sixty-one 
factories.  New  York  had  begun  that  marvelous 
growth  which  made  the  city,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
decades,  the  financial  capital  of  a  hemisphere.  So 
rapidly  were  people  flocking  to  New  York,  tliat 
houses  had  tenants  long  before  they  had  windows 
and  doors,  and  streets  were  Imed  with  buildings 
before  they  had  sewers,  sidewalks,  or  pavements. 
New  Jersey  had  well  under  way  those  manufacto- 
ries of  glassware,  porcelains,  carpets,  and  textiles 
which  have  since  brought  her  great  prosperity. 


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««  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

Philadelphia  was  the  country's  greatest  weaving 
center,  boasting  four  thousand  craftsmen  engaged 
m  that  industry.     Even  on  the  frontier,  Pittsburgh 
and  Cincinnati  were  emerging  from  "settlements" 
into  manufacturing  towns  of  importance.     Mc- 
Master  concludes  his  graphic  summary  of  these 
years  as  follows:  "In  1820  it  was  estimated  that 
200,000  persons  and  a  capital  of  $75,000,000  were 
employed  in  manufacturing.     In  1825  the  capital 
used  had  been  expanded  to  $160,000,000  and  the 
number  of  workers  to  2,000,000. " ' 

The  Industrial  Revolution  had  set  in.     These 
new  millions  who  hastened  to  answer  the  call  of 
industry  in  the  new  land  were  largely  composed  of 
the  poor  of  other  lands.     Thousands  of  them  were 
paupers  when  they  landed  in  America,  their  pas- 
sage h  1^  ■  u,  beea  paid  by  those  at  home  who  wanted 
to  get  rid  of  them.     Vast  numbers  settled  down  in 
the  cities,  in  spite  of  the  lure  of  the  land.     It  was 
at  this  period  that  universal  manhood  suffrage  was 
written  into  the  constitutions  of  the  older  States, 
and  a  new  electorate  assumed  the  reins  of  power! 
Now  the  first  labor  representatives  were  sent  to 
the  legislatures  and  to  Congress,  and  the  older 
parties  began  eagerly  bidding  for  the  votes  of  the 

■  History  ./  the  People  of  the  United  States  (1901).  v„I.  v.  p.  230. 


li 


FORMATIVE  YEARS 


27 


humble.     The  decision  of  great  questions    jII  to 
this  new  electorate.     With  the  rise  of  industry 
came  the  demand  for  a  protective  tariff  and  for 
better   transportation.     State   governments   vied 
with  each  other,  in  thoughtless  haste,  in  lending 
their  credit  to  new  turnpike  and  canal  construc- 
tion.    And  above  ali  political  issues  loomed  the 
Bank,  the  monopoly  that  became  the  laborer's 
bugaboo  and  Andrew  Jackson's  opportunity  to 
rally  to  his  side  the  newly  enfranchised  mechanics. 
So  the  old  days  of  semi-colonial  composure  were 
succeeded  by  the  thrilling  experiences  that  a  new 
industrial  prosperity  thrusts  upon  a  really  demo- 
cratic electorate.     Little  wonder  that  the  labor 
union  movement  took  the  political  by-path,  seek- 
ing salvation  in  the  promise  of  the  politician  and 
in  the  panacea  of  fatuous  laws.     Now  there  were 
to  be  discerned  the  beginnings  of  class  solidarity 
among  the  working  people.     But  the  individual's 
chances  to  improve  his  situation  were  still  very 
great  and  opportunity  was  still  a  golden  word. 

The  harsh  facts  of  the  hour,  however,  soon  began 
to  call  for  united  action.  The  cities  were  expand- 
ing with  such  eager  haste  that  proper  housing  con- 
ditions were  overlooked.  Workingmen  were  obliged 
to  live  in  wretched  structures.     Moreover,  human 


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«8  THE  ARlVflES  OF  LABOR 

beings  were  still  levied  on  for  debt  and  imprisoned 
for  default  of  payment.     Children  of  less  than  six- 
teen years  of  age  were  working  twelve  or  more 
hours  a  day,  and  if  they  received  any  education 
at  all,  it  was  usually  in  schools  charitably  called 
"ragged  schools"  or  "poor  schools."  or  "pauper 
schools."    There  was  no  adequate  redress  for  the 
mechanic  if  his  wages  were  in  default,  for  lien  laws 
had  not  yet  found  their  way  into  the  statute  books. 
Militia  .service  was  oppressive,  permitting  only  the 
rich  to  buy  exemption.     It  was  still  considered  an 
unlawful  conspiracy  to  act  in  unison  for  an  increase 
m  pay  or  a  lessening  of  working  hours.     By  1840 
the  pay  of  unskilled  labor  had  dropped  to  about 
seventy-five  cents  a  day  in  the  overcrowded  cities, 
and  in  the  winter,  in  either  city  or  country,  many 
unskilled  workers  were  glad  to  work  for  merely 
their  board.    The  lot  of  women  workers  was  especi- 
ally pitiful.     A  seamstress  by  hard  toil,  working 
fifteen  hours  a  day  might  stitch  enough  shirts  to 
earn  from  seventy-two  cents  to  a  dollar  and  twelve 
cents  a  week.     Skilled  labor,  while  faring  better 
in  wages,   shared   with  the  unskilled  in  the  uni- 
versal working  day  which  lasted  from  sun  to  sun. 
Such  in  brief  were  the  conditions  that  brought 
home  to  the  laboring  masses  that  homogeneous 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  29 

consciousness  which  aione  makes  a  group  powerful 
in  a  democracy. 

The  movement  can  most  clearly  be  discerned 
in  the  cities.  Philadelphia  claims  precedence  as 
the  home  of  the  first  Trades'  Union.  The  master 
cordwainers  had  organized  a  society  in  1792,  and 
their  journeymen  had  followed  suit  two  years 
later.  The  experiences  and  vicissitudes  of  these 
shoemakers  furnished  a  useful  lesson  to  other 
tradesmen,  many  of  whom  were  organized  into 
unions.  But  they  were  isolated  organizations, 
each  one  fighting  its  own  battles.  In  1827  the  Me- 
chanics' Union  of  Trade  Associations  was  formed. 
Of  its  significance  John  R.  Commons  says: 

England  is  considered  the  home  of  trade-unionism, 
but  the  distinction  belongs  to  Philadelphia.  .  .  .  The 
first  trades'  union  in  England  was  that  of  Manchester, 
organized  in  1829,  although  there  seems  to  have  l>een 
an  attempt  to  organize  one  in  1824.  But  the  first  one 
in  America  was  the  "Mechanics'  Union  of  Trade 
Associations,"  organized  in  Philadelphia  in  1827,  two 
years  earlier.  The  name  came  from  Manchester,  but 
the  thing  from  Philadelphia.  Neither  union  lasted 
long.  The  Manchester  union  lived  two  years,  and  the 
Philadeli  lia  union  one  year.  But  the  Manchester 
union  died  and  the  Philadelphia  union  metamorphosed 
into  politics.  Here  again  Philadelphia  was  the  pio- 
neer, for  it  called  into  being  the  first  labor  party.     Not 


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THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


on  y  this,  but  through  the  Mechanics'  Union  Phila- 
delphia started  probably  the  first  wage-earners'  paper 
ever  pubhshed  -  the  Mechanics  Free  Press  -  ante- 
dating m  January.  1828.  the  first  similar  journal  in 
England  by  two  years.' 

The  union  had  its  inception  in  the  first  general 
building  strike  called  in  America.     In  the  summer 
of  ^S27  the  carpenters  struck  for  a  ten-hour  day 
They  were  soon  joined  by  the  bricklayers,  painters, 
and  glaziers,  and  members  of  other  trades     But 
the  strike  failed  of  its  immediate  object.     A  second 
effort  to  combine  the  various  trades  into  one  organ- 
ization  was  made  in  1833,  when  the  Trades'  Union 
of  the  City  and  County  of  Philadelphia,  was  formed. 
Three  years  later  this  union  embraced  some  fifty 
societies  with  over  ten  thousand  members.     In 
June.  1835.  this  organization  undertook  what  was 
probably  the  first  successful  general  strike  in  Amer- 
ica.    It  began  among  the  cordwainers,  spread  to 
the  workers  in  the  building  trades,  and  was  pres- 
ently joined  in  by  cigarmakers.  carters,  saddlers 
and   harness   makers,   smiths,  plumbers,   bakers, 
printers,  and  even  by  the  unskilled  workers  on  the 
docks.   The  strikers'  demand  for  a  ten-hour  day  re- 
ceived a  great  deal  of  support  from  the  influential 

•  ImI^  OrganiM,tion  and  Labor  Pditk,,  1897-37;  in  the  Quartnh 
Journal  of  Economit,.  February.  HK)7.  ^u<^tnly 


h.  .^ 


FORMATIVE  YEARS 


81 


men  in  the  community.  After  a  mass  meeting  of 
citizens  had  adopted  resolutions  endorsing  the 
demands  of  the  union,  the  city  council  agreed  to 
a  ten-hour  day  for  all  municipal  employees. 

In  1833  the  carpenters  of  New  York  City  struck 
for  an  increase  in  wages.  They  were  receiving  a 
dollar  thirty-seven  and  a  hs  f  cents  a  day;  they 
asked  for  a  dollar  and  a  haii.  They  obtained  the 
support  of  other  workers,  notably  the  tailors, 
printers,  brushmakers,  tobacconists,  and  masons, 
and  succeeded  in  winning  their  strike  in  one  month. 
The  printers,  who  have  always  been  alert  and  ac- 
tive in  New  York  City,  elated  by  the  success  of 
this  codrdinate  effort,  sent  out  a  circular  calling 
for  a  general  convention  of  all  the  trades  societies 
of  the  city.  After  a  preliminary  meeting  in  July, 
a  mass  meeting  was  held  in  December,  at  which 
there  were  present  about  four  thousand  persons 
representing  twenty-one  societies.  The  outcome 
of  the  meeting  was  the  organization  of  the  General 
Trades'  Union  of  New  York  City. 

It  happened  in  the  following  year  that  Ely 
iVioore  of  the  Typographical  Association  and  the 
first  president  of  the  new  union,  a  powerful  ora- 
tor and  a  sagacious  organizer,  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress on  the  Jackson  ticket.    He  was  backed  by 


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^  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

Tammany  Hall,  always  on  the  alert  for  winners 
and  was  supported  by  the  mechanics,  artisans,  and 
worbngmen.     He  was  the  first  man  to  take  his 

ofTabor^^^^'"^""  ^  '^'  ^^''"'"'^  representative 
The  movement  for  a  ten-hour  day  was  now  in  full 
swmg,  and  the  years  1834-7  were  full  of  strikes 
The  mt  spectacular  of  these  struggles  was  the 
stnke  of  the  tailors  of  New  York  in  1836,  in  the 
course  of  which  twenty  strikers  were  arrested  for 
conspiracy.     After  a  spirited   trial   attended   by 
throngs  of  spectators,  the  men  were  found  guilty 
by  a  jury  which  took  only  thirty  minutes  for  delib- 
eration.   Thestrikers  werefined  $50  each,  except  the 
president  of  the  society,  who  was  fined  $^         After 
the  trial  there  was  held  a  mass  meeting         h  was 
attended,  according  to  the  Evening  Post,  b    !      nty- 
seven  thousand  persons.     Resolutions  weiv  passed 
declaring  t»^at  "to  all  acts  of  tyranny  and  injustice 
resistance  is  just  and  therefore  necessary."  and 
that  the  construction  given  to  the  law  in  the  case 
of  the  journeymen  tailors  is  not  only  ridiculous  and 
weak  in  practice  but  unjust  in  principle  and  sub- 
versive of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  American 
citizens.       The  town  was  placarded  with  "coffin " 
handbills,  a  practice  not  uncommon  in  those  days. 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  SS 

Enclosed  in  a  device  representing  a  coffin  were 
these  words: 

The  Rich  Against  the  Poor! 

Twenty  of  your  brethren  have  been  found  guilty  for 
presuming  to  resist  a  reduction  in  their  wages! 
Judge  Edwards  has  charged  .  .  .  the  Rich  are  the  only 
judges  of  the  wants  of  the  poor.  On  Monday,  June  6, 
1836,  the  Freemen  are  to  receive  their  sentence,  to 
gratify  the  hellish  appetites  of  aristocracy!  .  .  .  Go! 
Go!  Go!  Every  Freeman,  every  Workingman,  aad 
hear  the  melancholy  sound  of  the  earth  on  the  Coffin 
of  Equality.  Let  the  Court  Room,  the  City-hall  — 
yea,  the  whole  Park,  be  filled  with  mourners!  But 
remember,  offer  no  violence  to  Judge  Edwards !  Bend 
meekly  and  receive  the  chains  wherewith  you  are  to 
be  bound!  Keep  the  peace!  Above  all  things,  keep 
the  peace ! 

The  Evening  Post  concludes  a  long  account  of  the 
affair  by  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
Trades  Union  was  not  composed  of  "only  foreign- 
ers." "It  is  a  low  calculation  when  we  estimate 
that  two-thirds  of  the  workingnien  of  the  city,  num- 
bering several  thousand  persons,  belong  to  it,"  and 
that  "it  is  controlled  and  supported  by  the  great 
majority  of  our  native  horn." 

The  Boston  Trades  Union  was  organized  in  1834 
and  started  out  with  a  great  labor  parade  on  the 


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84  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

Fourth  of  July,  followed  by  a  dinner  served  to  a 
thousand  persons  in  Faneuil  Hall.     This  union 
was  formed  primarily  to  fight  for  the  ten-hour 
day,  and  the  leading  crusaders  were  the  house  car- 
penters.  the  ship  carpenters,  and  the  masons.   Simi- 
lar  unions  presently  sprang  up  in  other  cities, 
mcludmg  Baltimore.  Albany.  Troy.  Washington. 
Newark.  Schenectady.  New  Brunswick.  Pittsburgh 
Cmcmnati,  and  St.  Louis.     By  1835  all  the  larger 
centers  of  industry  were  familiar  with  the  idea,  and 
most  of  them  with  the  practice,  of  the  trades  organ- 
izations  of  a  community  uniting  for  action. 

The  local  unions  were  not  unmindful  of  the  need 
for  wider  action,  either  through  a  national  union 
of  all  the  organizations  of  a  single  trade,  or  through 
a  umon  of  all  the  different  trades  unions.    Both 
courses  of  action  were  attempted.    In  1834  the 
National  Trades  Union  came  into  being  and  from 
that  date  held  annual  national  conventions  of  all 
the  trades  until  the  panic  of  1837  obliterated  the 
movement.     When  the  first  convention  was  called 
It  was  estim.  ted  that  there  were  some  26,250  mem- 
bers of  trades  unions  then  in  the  United  States. 
Of  these  11,500  were  in  New  York  and  its  vicinity 
6000  in  Philadelphia,  4000  In  Boston,  and  3500 
in  Baltimore.     Meanwhile  a  movement  was  under 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  S5 

way   to   federate   the  unions  of  a   single   trade. 
In  1835  the  cordwainers  attending  the  Natic-al 
Trades  Union  formed  a  preliminary  organization 
and   called   a   national   cordwainers'  convention. 
This  met  in  New  York  in  March,  1836,  and  in- 
cluded forty-five  delegates  from  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Connecticut.     In  the  fall 
of    1836   the   comb-makers,   the  carpenters,    the 
hand-loom  weavers,  and  the  printers  likewise  or- 
ganized   separate    national    unions    or    alliances, 
and  several  other  trades  made  tentative  efforts 
by  correspondence  to  organize  themselves  in  the 
same  manner 

Before  the  dire  year  of  1837,  there  are,  then,  to 
be  found  the  beginning.-  of  most  of  the  elements  of 
modern  labor  organizations  —  benevolent  societies 
and  militant  orders;  political  activities  and  trades 
activities;  amalgamations  of  local  societies  of  the 
same  trades  and  of  all  trades;  attempts  at  national 
organization  on  the  part  of  both  the  local  trades 
unions  and  of  the  local  trade  unions;  a  labor  press 
to  keep  alive  the  interest  of  the  workman;  mass 
'ngs,  circulars,  conventions,  and  appeals  to 
arouse  the  interest  of  the  public  in  the  issues  of  the 
hour.  The  persistent  demand  of  the  workingmen 
was  for  a  ten-hour  day.    Harriet  Martineau.  who 


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86  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

traveled  extensively  through  the  United  States,  re- 
marked  that  all  the  strikes  she  heard  of  were  on 
the  question  of  houts,  not  wages.     But  there  were 
nevertheless  abundant  strikes  either  to  raise  wages 
or  to  maintain  them.     There  were,  also,  other 
fundamental  questions  in  controversy  which  could 
not  be  settled  by  strikes,  such  as  imprisonment  for 
debt,  lien  and  exemption  and  homestead  laws 
convict  labor  and  slave  labor,  and  universal  edu- 
cation.    Most  of  these  issues  have  since  that  time 
been  decided  in  favor  of  labor,  and  a  new  series 
of  demands  takes  their  place  today.     Yet  as  one 
reads  the  records  of  the  early  conspiracy  cases  or 
thumbs  through  the  files  of  old  periodicals,  he 
learns  that  there  is  indeed  nothing  new  under  the 
sun  and  that,  while  perhaps  the  particular  issues 
have  changed,  the  general  methods  and  the  spirit 
of  the  contest  remain  the  same. 

The  laborer  believed  then,  as  he  does  now,  that 
his  organization  must  be  all-embracing.  In  those 
days  also  there  were  "scabs,"  often  called  "rats" 
or  "  dung. "  Places  under  ban  were  systematically 
picketed,  and  warnings  like  the  following  were  sent 
out:  "We  would  caution  all  strangers  and  others 
who  profess  the  art  of  horseshoeing,  that  if  they  go 
to  work  for  any  employer  under  the  above  prices, 


K 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  37 

they  must  abide  by  the  consequences. "  Usually 
the  consequences  were  a  fine  imposed  by  the  union, 
but  sometimes  they  were  more  severe.  Coercion 
by  the  union  did  not  cease  with  the  strike.  Jour- 
neymen who  were  not  members  were  pursued  with 
assiduity  and  energy  as  soon  as  they  entered  a 
town  and  found  work.  The  boycott  was  a  method 
early  used  against  prison  labor.  New  York  stone- 
cutters agreed  that  they  would  not  "either  col- 
lectively or  individually  purchase  any  goods  manu- 
factured" by  convicts  and  that  they  would  not 
"countenance"  any  merchants  who  dealt  in  them; 
and  employers  who  incurred  the  displeasure  of  or- 
ganized labor  were  "nullified." 

The  use  of  the  militia  during  strikes  presented 
the  same  difficulties  then  as  now.  During  the  gen- 
ZTdl  strike  in  Philadelphia  in  1835  there  was  con- 
siderable rowdyism,  and  Michel  Chevalier,  a  keen 
observer  of  American  life,  wrote  that  "the  militia 
looks  on;  the  sheriff  stands  with  folded  hands." 
Nor  was  there  any  difference  in  the  attitude  of  the 
laboring  man  towards  unfavorable  court  decisions. 
In  the  tailors'  strike  in  New  York  in  1836,  for 
instance,  twenty-seven  thousand  symp  thizers  as- 
sembled with  bands  and  banners  to  protest  against 
the  jury's  verdict,  and  after  sentence  had  been 


n  ■' 


'H 


11 


'■■  f  j 


^.'H 


|: 


^  n      '1 


'i^ 


M  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

imposed  upon  the  defendants,  the  lusty  throng 
burned  the  judge  in  eflSgy. 

Sabotage  is  a  new  word,  but  the  practice  itself  is 
old.    In  1835  the  striking  cabinet-makers  in  New 
York  smashed  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  chairs, 
tables,  and  sofas  that  had  been  imported  from 
France,  and  the  newspapers  observed  the  signi- 
ficant fact  that  the  destroyers  boasted  in  a  for- 
eign language  that  only  American-made  furniture 
should  be  sold  in  America.     Houses  were  burned 
in  Philadelphia  because  the  contractors  erecting 
them  refused  to  grant  the  wages  that  were  demand- 
ed.  Vengeance  was  sometimes  sought  against  new 
machinery  that  displaced  hand  labor.     In  June, 
1835,  a  New  York  paper  remarked  that  "it  is  well 
known  that  many  of  the  most  obstinate  turn-outs 
among  workingmen  and  many  of  the  most  violent 
and  lawless  proceedings  have  been  excited  for  the 
purpose  of  destroying  newly  invented  machinery. " 
Such  acts  of  wantonness,  however,  were  few,  even 
in  those  first  tumultuous  days  of  the  thirties. 
Striking  became  in  those  days  a  sort  of  mania,  and 
not  a  town  that  had  a  mill  or  shop  was  exempt. 
Men  struck  for  "grog  or  death,"  for  "Liberty, 
Equality,  and  the  Rights  of  Man,"  and  even  for 
the  right  to  smoke  their  pipes  at  work. 


L*'M 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  M 

Strike  benefits,  too,  were  known  in  this  early 
period.  Strikers  in  New  York  received  assistance 
from  Philadelphia,  and  Boston  strikers  were  simi- 
larly aided  by  both  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 
When  the  high  cost  of  living  threatened  to  deprive 
the  wage-earner  of  half  his  income,  bread  riots 
occurred  in  the  cities,  and  handbills  circulated 
in  New  York  bore  the  l.gend: 

Bread,  Meat,  Rent,  Fuel 
Their  Prices  Must  Come  Down 


■!■ 


! 


I.: 


-  »      •  ■: 


^fi 


t : 


'  1!  K 
I:  \ 


I    "I 
^  P  -l-l 

J!  I 


uh-X 


r 


■•u  f 


fl 


4 


CHAPTER  III 

TRANSITION   YEARS 

With  the  panic  of  1837  the  mills  ^ere  closed, 
thousands  of  unemployed  workers  were  thrown 
upon  private  charity,  and.  in  the  long  years  of 
depression  which  followed,  trade  unionism  suffered 
a  temporary  eclipse.     It  was  a  period  of  social 
unrest  m  which  all  sorts  of  philanthropic  reforms 
were  suggested  and  tried  out.     Measured  by  later 
events,  it  was  a  period  of  transition,  of 'social 
awakening,  of  aspiration  tempered  by  the  bitter 
experience  of  failure. 

In  the  previous  decade  Robert  Owen,  the  dis- 
tmguished  English  social  reformer  and  philanthro- 
pist, had  visited  America  and  had  begun  in     ^26 
his  famous  colony  at  New  Harmony,   In     n.a 
His   experiments   at  New   Lanark,   in   England, 
had  already  made  him  known  to  working  people 
the  world  over.     Whatever  may  be  said  of  his 
quamt  attempts  to  reduce  society  to  a  common 

40 


I 


TRANSITION  YEARS  41 

denominator,  it  is  certain  that  his  arrival  in  Ameri- 
ca, at  a  time  when  people's  minds  were  open  to 
all  sorts  of  economic  suggestions,  had  a  stimu- 
lating eflFect  upon  labor  reforms  and  led,  in  the 
course  of  time,  to  the  founding  of  some  forty 
communistic  colonies,  most  of  them  in  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio.     "  We  are  all  a  little  wild 
here  with  numberless  projects  of  social  reform," 
wrote  Emerson  to  Thomas  Carlyle;  "not  a  reading 
man  but  has  the  draft  of  a  new  community  in  his 
waistcoat  pocket. "    One  of  these  experiments,  at 
Red  Bank,  New  Jersey,  lasted  for  thirteen  years, 
and  another,  in  Wisconsin,  for  six  years.    But  most 
of  them  after  a  year  or  two  gave  up  the  struggle. 
Of  these  failures,  the  best  known  is  Brook  Farm, 
an  intellectual  community  founded  in   1841  by 
George  Ripley  at  West  Roxbury,  Massachusetts. 
Six  years  later  the  project  was  abandoned  and  is 
now  remembered  as  an  example  of  the  futility  of 
trying  to  leaven  a  world  of  realism  by  means  of  an 
atom  of  transcendental  idealism.     In  a  sense,  how- 
ever. Brook  Farm  typifies  this  period  of  transition. 
It  was  a  time  of  vagaries  and  longings.     People 
seemed  to  be  conscious  of  the  fact  that  a  new  social 
solidarity  was  dawning.     It  is  not  strange,  there- 
fore, that  —  while  the  railroads  were  feeling  their 


i-  ■     y. 


■.J*? 


^JM 


ii 


**  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

way  from  Lrrrn  to  town  and  across  the  prairies, 
while  water-power  and  steam-power  were  multi- 
plying  man',  j.roductivity.  indicating  that  the  old 
days  were  g-ne  forever  -  many  curious  dreams 
of  a  new  order  of  things  should  be  dreamed,  nor 
that  among   V. .    ome  should  be  ridiculous,  some 
fantastic,  a.  .  -oiiK  unworthy,  nor  that,  as  the  fu- 
tility of  a    nn    sa.  .ocial  reform  forced  itself  upon 
the  dreamc   ,,  t'.,-  .aerged  the  greater  in  the  les- 
ser, the  gen.r.  I :,.    ^par*.  -  ;.andsoughtanout. 
let  m  espoHMT «  .or.  .,     ,iic  cause  or  attacking 
some  particu )  i  r  e v ' 

Those  mov..nent ,  u     .h  had  their  inspiration  in 
a  genume  hwrnanitarianism  achieved  great  good. 
Now  for  the  first  time  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  dumb 
and  the  insane  were  made  the  object  of  social 
solicitude  and  communal  care.     The  criminal,  too. 
and  the  jail  in  which  he  was  confined  remained  no 
longer  utteriy  neglected.     Men  of  the  debtor  class 
were  freed  from  that  medieval  barbarism  which 
gave  the  creditor  the  right  to  levy  on  the  person  of 
his  debtor.     Even  the  public  schools  were  dragged 
out  of  their  lethargy.     When  Horace  Mann  was 
appointed  secretary  of  the  newly  created  Massa- 
chusetts Board  of  Education  in  1837.  a  new  day 
dawned  for  American  public  schools. 


TRANSITION  YEARS  4S 

While  these  and  other  substantial  improvements 
were  under  way,  the  charlatan  and  the  faddist  were 
not  without  their  opportunities  or  their  votaries. 
Spirit  rappings  beguiled  or  awed  the  villagers; 
thousands  of  religious  zealots  in  1844  abandoned 
their  vocations  and,  drawing  on  white  robes, 
awaited  expectantly  the  second  coming  of  Christ: 
every  cult  from  free  love  to  celibate  austerity  found 
zealous  followers;  the  "new  woman"  declared  her 
independence  in  short  hair  and  bloomers;  people 
sought  social  salvation  in  new  health  codes,  in 
vegetarian  boarding-houses,  and  in  physical  cul- 
ture clubs;  and  some  pursued  the  way  to  perfection 
through  sensual  religious  exercises. 

In  this  seething  milieu,  this  medley  of  practical 
humanitarianism  and  social  fantasies,  the  labor 
movement  was  revived.  In  the  forties,  Thomas 
Mooney,  an  observant  Irish  traveler  who  had 
spent  several  years  in  the  United  States  wrote 
as  follows ' : 


li 


^  m 


\  M 


*  • 

:  U   4 


The  average  value  of  a  oommon  uneducated  labourer  is 
eighty  cents  a  day.  Of  educated  or  mechanical  la- 
bour, one  hundred  twenty-five  and  two  hundred 
cents  a  day;  of  female  labour  forty  cents  a  day. 
Against   meat,   flour,    vegetables,   and    groceries    at 

'Nine  Yeart  in  America  (1850),  p.  M. 


'ml  ^ 
ft  ' 


m 

'' :  i 


♦s 


M 


44 


I' 


I 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


one-third  less  than  they  rate  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland;  against  clothing,  house  rent  and  fueTat  about 
equal;  against  public  taxes  at  about  threerurl  t" 
and  a  certainty  of  employment,  and  a  facility  of   ' 
quiring  homes  and  lands,  and  education  for  diiWreT 
a  hundred  to  one  greater.     The  further  you  penetrX' 

er,  m«Aaaic  or  labourer  is  «,.  b„t  I  be"tve  eJX 
by  any  „„  ,„  ^a^ea  i„  the  whol,  world  At  i^^ 
meal  there  is  meat  or  fish  or  both;  indeed  I  thM^ 
women,  children,  and  «d.nUry  cia"^:lt\'^°Lt 
meat  for  their  own  good  health. 

This  highly  optimistic  picture,  written  by  a  san- 
guine observer  from  the  land  of  greatest  agrarian 
oppression,  must  be  shaded  by  contrasting  details. 
The  truck  system  of  payment,  prevalent  in  mining 
regions  and  many  factory  towns,  reduced  the  ac 
tua    wage  by  almost  one-half.     In  the  cities,  un- 
skilled immigrants  had  so  overcrowded  the  com- 
mon  labor  market  that  competition  had  reduced 
them  to  a  pitiable  stote.     Hours  of  labor  were 
generally  long  in  the  factories.     As  a  rule  only  the 
skilled  artisan  had  achieved   the  ten-hour  day 
and  then  only  in  isolated  instances.     Woman's' 
labor  was  the  poorest  paid,  and  her  condition 
was  the  most  neglected.    A  visitor  to  Lowell  in 


i 


TRANSITION  YEARS  4S 

1846  thus  describes  the  conditions  in  an  average 
factory  of  that  town: 

In  Lowell  live  between  seven  and  eight  thousand 
young  women,  who  are  generally  daughters  of  farmers 
of  the  different  States  of  New  England.  Some  of  them 
are  members  of  families  that  were  rich  the  generation 
before.  .  .  .  The  operatives  work  thirteen  hours  a 
day  in  the  summer  time,  and  from  daylight  to  dark 
in  the  winter.  At  half-past  four  in  the  morning  the 
factory  bell  rings  and  at  five  the  girls  must  be  in  the 
mills.  A  clerk,  placed  as  a  watch,  observes  those 
who  are  a  few  minutes  behind  the  time,  and  effectual 
means  are  taken  to  stimulate  punctuality.  ...  At 
seven  the  girls  are  allowed  thirty  minutes  for  break- 
fast, and  at  noon  thirty  minutes  more  for  dinner, 
except  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  year,  when  the 
time  is  extended  to  forty-five  minutes.  But  within 
this  time  they  must  hurry  to  their  boarding-houses 
and  return  to  the  factory.  ...  At  seven  o'clock  in 
the  evening  the  factory  bell  sound.s  *he  close  of  the 
day's  work. 

It  was  under  these  conditions  that  the  coopera- 
tive movement  had  its  brief  day  of  experiment.  As 
early  as  1828  the  workmen  of  Philadelphia  and  Cin- 
cinnati had  begun  cooperative  .stores.  The  Phila- 
delphia group  were  "fully  persuaded,"  accord- 
ing to  their  constitution,  "that  nothing  short  of 
an  entire  change  in  the  present  regulation  of  trade 
and  commerce  will  ever  be  permanently  beneficial 


^.'f 


r 


J  i 


I.      .; 


i  1 

.1  *  II 
jiil 


46  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

to  the  productive  part  of  the  community."    But 

their  little  shop  survived  competition  for  only  a 

few  months.     The  Cincinnati  "  CoGperative  Maga- 

zme"  was  a  sort  of  combination  of  store  and  shop, 

where  various  trades  were  taught,  but  it  also  soon 

disappeared. 

In  1845  the  New  England  Workingmen's  Assooi- 
ation  organized  a  protective  union  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  for  its  members  "steady  and  profitable 
employment"  and  of  saving  the  retailer's  profit  for 
the  purchaser.     This  movement  had  a  high  moral 
flavor.     "The  dollar  was  to  us  of  minor  impor- 
tance; humanitary  and  not  mercenary  were  our 
motives."  reported  their  committee  on  organiza- 
bon  of  industry.     "We  must  proceed  from  com- 
bmed  stores  to  combined  .hops,  from  combined 
shops  to  combined  homes,  to  joint  ownership  in 
God's  earth,  the  foundation  that  our  edifice  must 
stand  upon. "    In  this  ambitious  spirit  "  they  com- 
menced business  with  a  box  of  soap  and  half  a 
chest  of  tea."    In  1852  they  had  167  branches,  a 
capiUl  of  $241,71«.66.  and  a  business  of  nearly 
$2,000,000  a  year. 

In  the  meantime  similar  cooperative  movements 
began  elsewhere.  The  tailors  of  Boston  struck  for 
higher  wages  in  1850  and.  after  fourteen  weeks  of 


1 1 


f 


TRANSITION  YEARS  47 

futile  struggle,  decided  that  their  salvation  lay  in 
cooperation  rather  than  in  trade  unionism,  which 
at  best  afforded  only  temporary  relief.  About 
seventy  of  them  raised  $700  as  a  cooperative 
nest  egg  and  netted  a  profit  of  $510.60  the  first 
year.  In  the  same  year  the  Philadelphia  printers, 
disappointed  at  their  failure  to  force  a  higher  wage, 
organized  a  cooperative  printing  press. 

The  movement  spread  to  New  York,  where  a 
strike  of  the  tailors  was  in  progress.     The  strikers 
were  addressed  at  a  great  mass  meeting  by  Albert 
Brisbane,  an  ardent  disciple  of  Fourier,  the  French 
social  economist,  and  we're  told  that  they  must  do 
away  with  servitude  to  capital.     "What  we  want 
to  know, "  said  Brisbane,  "  is  how  to  change,  peace- 
fully, the  system  of  today.     The  first  great  princi- 
ple is  combination."    Another  meeting  was  ad- 
dressed by  a  German,  a  follower  of  Karl  Marx,  who 
uttered  in  his  native  tongue  these  words  that  sound 
like  a  modern  I.  W.  W.  prophet:  " Many  of  us  have 
fought  for  liberty  in  the  fatherland.     We  came 
here  because  we  were  opposed,  and  what  have  we 
gained?    Nothing  but  misery,  hunger,  and  tread- 
ing down.    But  we  are  in  a  free  country  and  it  is  our 
fault  if  we  do  not  get  our  rights.  ...     Let  those 
who  strike  eat;  the  rest  starve.    Butchers  and 


^.1 


i-< 


?r.i 


II 


f' 


48  THE  .VRMIES  OF  LABOR 

bakers  must  withhold  supplies.  Yes.  they  must 
all  strike,  and  then  the  aristocrat  will  starve  We 
must  have  a  revolution.  We  cannot  submit  any 
^onger."  The  cry  of  "Revolution!  Revolution'" 
M'as  taken  up  by  the  throng. 

In  the  midst  of  this  agitation  a  New  York 
branch  of  the  New  England  Protective  Union  was 
orgamzed  as  an  attempt  at  peaceful  revolution 
by  cooperation.     The  New  York  Protective  Union 
went  a  step  farther  than  the  New  England  Union 
Its  members  established  their  own  shops  and  so 
became  their  own  employers.     And  in  many  other 
cities  striking  workmen  and'eager  reformers  joined 
hands  in  modest  endeavors  to  change  the  face  of 
things.     The  revolutionary  movements  of  Europe 
at  this  period  were  having  a  seismic  effect  upon 
American  labor.     But  all  these  attempts  of  the 
workmgmen  to  tourney  a  rough  world  with  a  needle 
were  foredoomed  to  failure.     Lacking  the  essential 
business  experience  and  the  ability  to  cooperate 
they  were  soon  undone,  and  after  a  few  years' 
little  more  was  heard  of  cooperation. 

In  the  meantime  another  economic  movement 
gamed  momentum  under  the  leadership  of  George 
Henry  Evans,  who  was  a  land  reformer  and  may 
be  called  a  precursor  of  Henry  George.     Evans 


TRANSITION  YEARS  49 

inaugurated  a  campaign  for  free  farms  to  entice  to 
the  land  the  unprosperous  toilers  of  the  city.  In 
spite  of  the  vast  areas  of  the  public  domain  still  un- 
occupied, the  cities  were  growing  denser  and  larger 
and  filthier  by  reason  of  the  multitudes  from  Ire- 
land and  other  countrieswho  preferred  tocast  them- 
selves into  the  eager  maw  of  factory  towns  rather 
than  go  out  as  agrarian  pioneers.  To  such  Evans 
and  other  agrarian  reformers  made  their  appeal. 
For  example,  a  handbill  distributed  everywhere  in 
1846  asked: 


^ 


■V' 


1 


■J  • 


f 


Are  you  an  American  citizen?  Then  you  are  a  joint- 
owner  of  the  public  lands.  Why  not  take  enough  of 
your  property  to  provide  yourself  a  home?  Why  not 
vote  yourself  a  farm? 

Are  you  a  party  follower?  Then  you  have  long 
enough  employed  your  vote  to  benefit  scheming  office 
seekers.  Use  it  for  once  to  benefit  yourself:  Vote 
yourself  a  farm. 

Are  you  tired  of  slavery  —  of  drudging  for  others  — 
of  poverty  and  its  attendant  miseries?  Then,  vote 
yourself  a  farm. 

Would  you  free  your  country  and  the  sons  of  toil 
everywhere  from  the  heartless,  irresponsible  mastery 
of  the  aristocracy  of  avarice?  .  .  .  Then  join  with 
your  neighbors  to  form  a  true  Amcriciiii  party 
whose  chief  measures  will  be  first  to  limit  the  quantity 
of  land  that  any  one  may  henceforth  monopolize  or 
inherit:  and  second  to  make  the  public  lands  free  to 


■  ^.: 


Iti 


i  •.  = 


r   . 


■hh 


^...iii 


50 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


actual  settlers  only,  each  having  the  right  to  sell  his 
improvements  to  any  man  not  possessed  of  other  lands. 

"Vote  yourself  a  farm"  became  a  popular  shib- 
boleth and  a  part  of  the  standard  programme  of 
organized  labor.    The  donation  of  public  lands  to 
heads  of  families,  on  condition  of  occupancy  and 
cultivation  for  a  term  of  years,  was  proposed  in  biUs 
repeatedly  introduced  in  Congress.    But  the  cry  of 
opposition  went  up  from  the  older  States  that 
they  would  be  bled  for  the  sake  of  the  newer,  that 
giving  land  to  the  landless  was  encouraging  idle- 
ness and  wantonness  and  spreading  demoralization, 
and  that  Congress  had  no  more  power  to  give  away 
land  than  it  had  to  give  away  money.    These  argu- 
ments had  their  effect  at  the  Capitol,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  new  Republican  party  came  into  power 
pledged  to  "a  complete  and  satisfactory  home- 
stead measure"  that  the  Homestead  Act  of  1862 
was  placed  on  the  statute  books. 

A  characteristic  manifestation  of  the  humani- 
tarian impulse  of  the  forties  was  the  support  given 
to  labor  in  its  renewed  demand  for  a  ten-hour 
day.  It  has  already  been  indicated  how  this 
movement  started  in  the  thirties,  how  its  object  was 
achieved  by  a  few  highly  organized  trades,  and  how 
it  was  interrupted  in  its  progress  by  the  panic  of 


%*  a 


TRANSITION  YEARS  51 

1837.     The  agitation,  however,  to  make  the  ten- 
hour  day  customary  throughout  the  country  was 
not  long  in  coming  back  to  hfe.     In  March,  1840, 
an  executive  order  of  President  Van  Buren  declar- 
ing ten  hours  to  be  the  working  day  for  laborers 
and  mechanics  in  government  employ  forced  the 
issue  upon  private  employers.     The  earliest  con- 
certed action,  it  would  seem,  arose  in  New  Eng- 
land, where  the  New  England  Workingmen's  As- 
sociation, later  called  the  Labor  Reform  League, 
carried  on  the  crusade.     In   1845   a  committee 
appointed  by  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  to 
investigate  labor  conditions  affords  the  first  in- 
stance on  record  of  an  American  legislature  con- 
cerning itself  with  the  affairs  of  the  labor  world 
to  the  extent  of  ordering  an  oflScial  investigation. 
The  con  mittee  examined  a  number  of  factory  oper- 
atives, loth  men  and  women,  visited  a  few  of  the 
mills,  gathered  some  statistics,  and  made  certain 
neutral  and  specious  suggestions.     They  believed 
the  remedy  for  such  evils  as  they  discovered  lay  not 
in  legislation  but  '*in  the  progressive  improvement 
in  art  and  science,  in  a  higher  appreciation  of 
man's  destiny,  in  a  less  love  for  money,  and  a  more 
ardent  love  for  social  happiness  and  intellectual 
superiority. " 


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52  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

The  first  ten-hour  law  was  passed  in  1847  by  the 
New  Hampshire  Legislature.     It  provided  that 
"ten  hours  of  actual  labor  shall  be  taken  to  be  a 
day's  work,  unless  otherwise  agreed  to  by  the  par- 
ties, "  and  that  no  minor  under  fifteen  years  of  age 
should  be  employed  more  than  ten  hours  a  day 
without  the  consent  of  parent  or  guardian.    This 
was  the  unassuming  beginning  of  a  movement  to 
have  the  hours  of  toil  fixed  by  society  rather 
than  by  contract.     This  law  of  New  Hampshire, 
which  was  destined  to  have  a  widespread  influence, 
was  hailed  by  the  workmen  everywhere  with  de- 
light; mass  meetings  and  processions  proclaimed 
it  as  a  great  victory;  and  only  the  conservatives 
prophesied  the  worthlessness  of  such  legislation. 
Horace  Greeley  sympathetically  dissected  the  bill. 
He  had  little  faith,  it  is  true,  in  legislative  inter- 
ference wj^h  private  contracts.     "But,"  he  asks, 
"who  can  seriously  doubt  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  Commonwealth  to  see  that  the  tender  frames 
of  its  youth  are  not  shattered  by  excessively  pro- 
tracted toil."  .  .  .     Will  any  one  pretend  that  ten 
hours  per  day,  especially  at  confining  and  mono- 
tonous avocations  which  tax  at  once  the  brain 
and  the  sinews  are  not  quite  enough  for  any  child 
to  labor  statedly  and  steadily?  '    The  consent  of 


TRANSITION  YEARS  53 

guardian  or  parent  he  thought  a  fraud  against  the 
child  that  could  be  averted  only  by  the  positive 
command  of  the  State  specifically  limiting  the  hours 
of  child  labor. 

In  the  following  year  Pennsylvania  enacted  a 
law  declaring  ten  hours  a  legal  day  in  certain  indus- 
tries and  forbidding  children  under  twelve  from 
working  in  cotton,  woolen,  silk,  or  flax  mills. 
Children  over  fourteen,  however,  could,  by  special 
arrangement  with  parents  or  guardians,  be  com- 
pelled to  work  more  than  ten  hours  a  day.  "This 
act  is  very  much  of  a  humbug,"  commented 
Greeley,  "but  it  will  serve  a  good  end.  Those 
whom  it  was  inteiided  to  put  asleep  will  come  back 
again  before  long,  and,  like  Oliver  Twist,  'want 
some  more. ' " 

The  ten-hour  movement  had  thus  achieved  so- 
cial recognition.  It  had  the  stanch  support  of 
such  men  as  Wendell  Phillips,  Edward  Everett, 
Horace  Greeley,  and  other  distinguished  publicists 
and  philanthropists.  Public  opinion  was  becom- 
ing so  strong  that  both  the  Whigs  and  Democrats 
in  their  party  platforms  declared  themselves  in 
favor  of  the  ten-hour  day.  When,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1847,  the  British  Parliament  passed  a  ten- 
hour  law,  American  unions  sent  congratulatory 


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«  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

messages  to  the  British  workmen.  Gradual.^  :Iie 
various  States  followed  the  example  of  New  Hamp- 
shire and  Pennsylvania  —  New  Jersey  in  1851, 
Ohio  in  1852,  and  Rhode  Island  in  1853  —  and 
the  "ten-hour  system"  was  legally  established. 

But  it  was  one  thing  to  write  a  statute  and  an- 
other to  enforce  it.    American  laws  were,  after 
aU,  based  upon  the  ancient  Anglo-Saxon  principle 
of  private  contract.    A  man  could  agree  to  work 
for  as  many  hours  as  he  chose,  and  each  employ- 
er could  drive  his  own  bargain.     The  cotton  mill 
owners  of  Allegheny  City,  for  example,  declared 
that  they  would  be  compelled  to  run  their  mills 
twelve  hours  a  day.     They  would  not,  of  course, 
employ  children  under  twelve,  although  they  felt 
deeply  concerned  for  the  widows  who  would  there- 
by lose  the  wages  of  their  children.    But  they  must 
run  on  a  twelve-hour  schedule  to  meet  compe- 
tition from  other  States.     So  they  attempted  to 
make  special  contracts  with  each  employee.    The 
workmen  objected  to  this  and  struck.     Finally 
they  compromised  on  a  ten-hour  day  and  a  sixteen 
per  cent  reduction  in  wages.     Such  an  arrangement 
became  a  common  occurrence  in  the  industrial 
world  of  the  middle  of  the  century. 
In  the  meantime  the  factory  system  was  rapidly 


M 


TRANSITION  YEARS  55 

recruiting  women  workers,  especially  in  the  New 
England  textile  mills.     Indeed,  as  early  as  1825 
"tailoresses"  of  New  York  and  other  cities  had 
formed  protective  societies.     In  18^29  the  mill  girls 
of  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  caused  a  sensation  by 
striking.     Several  hundred  of  them  paraded  the 
streets  and,  according  to  accounts,  "fired  off  a 
lot  of  gunpowder."    In  1836  the  women  workers 
in  the  Lowell  factories  struck  for  higher  wages  and 
later  organized  a  Factory  Girls'  Association  which 
included  more  than  2,500  members.   It  was  aimed 
against  the  strict  regimen  of  the  boarding  houses, 
which  were  owned  and  managed  by  the  mills. 
"As  our  fathers  resisted  unto  blood  the  lordly  ava- 
rice of  the  British  Ministry,"  cried  the  strikers, 
"so  we,  their  daughters,  never  will  wear  the  yoke 
which  has  been  prepared  for  us. " 

In  this  vibrant  atmosphere  was  born  the  power- 
ful woman's  labor  union,  the  Female  Labor  Reform 
Association,  later  called  the  Lowell  Female  Indus- 
trial Reform  and  Mutual  Aid  Society.  Lowell 
became  the  center  of  a  far-reaching  propaganda 
characterized  by  energy  and  a  definite  conception 
of  what  was  wanted.  The  women  joined  in  strikes, 
carried  banners,  sent  delegates  to  the  labor  con- 
ventions, and  were  zealous  m  propaganda.     It  was 


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the  women  workers  of  Massachusetts  who  first 
forced  the  legislature  to  investigate  labor  condi- 
tions and  who  aroused  public  sentiment  to  a  p^cli 
that  finally  compelled  the  enactment  of  laws  for 
the  bettering  of  their  conditions.  When  the  mill 
owners  in  Massachusetts  demanded  in  1846  that 
their  weavers  tend  four  looms  instead  of  three,  the 
women  promptly  resolved  that  "we  will  not  tend 
a  fourth  loom  unless  we  receive  the  same  pay  per 
piece  as  on  three.  .  .  .  This  we  most  solemnly 
pledge  ourselves  to  obtain. " 

In  New  York,  in  1845,  the  Female  Industry 
Association  was  organized  at  a  large  meeting 
held  in  the  court  house.  It  included  "  tailoresses, 
plain  and  coarse  sewing,  shirt  makers,  book-fold- 
ers and  stickers,  capmakers,  straw-workers,  dress- 
makers, crimpers,  fringe  and  lacemakers,"  and 
other  trades  open  to  women  "who  were  like  op- 
pressed. ' '  The  New  York  Herald  reported  ' '  about 
700  females  generally  of  the  most  interesting 
age  and  appearance"  in  attendance.  The  presi- 
dent of  the  meeting  unfolded  a  pitiable  condi- 
tion of  affairs.  She  mentioned  several  employers 
by  name  who  paid  only  from  ten  to  eighteen  cents 
a  day,  and  she  stated  that,  after  acquiring  skill 
in  some  of  the  trades  and  by  working  twelve 


•  i 


TRANSITION  YEARS  57 

to  fourteen  hours  a  day,  a  woman  might  earn 
twenty-five  cents  a  day!  "How  is  it  possible," 
she  exclaimed,  "that  at  such  an  income  we  can 
support  ourselves  decently  and  honestly?" 

So  we  come  to  the  fifties,  when  the  rapid  rise 
in  the  cost  of  living  due  to  the  influx  of  gold  from 
the  newly  discovered  California  mines  created  new 
economic  conditions.    By  1853,  the  cost  of  living 
had  risen  so  high  that  the  length  of  the  working 
day  was  quite  forgotten  because  of  the  utter  inade- 
quacy of  the  wage  to  meet  the  new  altitud.    of 
prices.     Hotels  issued  statements  that  tiiey  u-re 
compelled  to  raise  their  rates  for  board  from  a 
dollar  and  a  half  to  two  dollars  a  day.     News- 
papers raised  their  advertising  rates.     Drinks  wen  ( 
up  from  six  cents  to  ten  and  twelve  and  a  half 
cents.     In  Baltimore,  the  men  in  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Railway  shops  struck.     They  were  fol- 
lowed by  all  the  conductors,  brakemen,  and  loco- 
motive engineers.     Machinists  employed  in  other 
shops  soon  joined  them,  and  the  city's  industries 
were  virtually  paralyzed.     In  New  York  nearly 
every  industry  was  stopped  by  strikes.  In  Philadel- 
phia, Boston,  Pittsburgh,  in  cities  large  and  small, 
the  striking  workmen  made  their  demands  known. 
By  this  time  thoughtful  laborers  had  learned  the 


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58  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

futility  of  programmes  that  attempted  to  reform 
society.     They  had  watched  the  birth  and  death 
of  many  experiments.     They  had  participated  in 
short-lived  cooperative  stores  and  shops;  they  had 
listened  to  Owen's  alluring  words  and  had  seen 
his  World  Convention  meet  and  adjourn;  had  wit- 
nessed national  reform  associations,  leagues,  and 
industrial  congresses  issue  their  high-pitched  reso- 
lutions; and  had  united  on  legislative  candidates. 
And  ye;  the  old  world  wagged  on  in  the  old  way. 
Wages  and  hours  and  working  conditions  could  be 
changed,  they  had  learned,  only  by  coercion.    This 
coercion   ;ould  be  applied,  in  general  reforms,  only 
by  society,  by  stress  of  public  opinion.     But  in 
concrete  cases,  in  their  own  personal  environment, 
the  coercion  had  to  be  first  applied  by  themselves. 
They  had  learned  the  lesson  of  letting  the  world 
in  general  go  its  way  while  they  attended  to  their 
own  business. 

In  the  early  fifties,  then,  a  new  species  of  union 
appears.  It  discards  lofty  phraseology  and  the 
attempt  at  world-reform  and  it  becomes  simply  a 
trade  union.  It  restricts  its  house-cleaning  to  its 
own  shop,  limits  its  demands  to  its  trade,  asks 
for  a  r'nimum  wage  and  minimum  hours,  and  lays 
out  with  considerable  detail  the  conditions  under 


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TRANSITION  YEARS  50 

which  its  members  will  work.  The  weapons  in  its 
arsenal  are  not  new  —  the  strike  and  the  boycott. 
Now  that  he  has  learned  to  distinguish  essentials, 
the  new  trade  unionist  can  bargain  with  his  em- 
ployer, and  as  a  result  trade  agreements  stipu- 
lating hours,  wages,  and  conditions,  take  the  place 
of  the  desultory  and  ineffective  .settlements  which 
had  hitherto  issued  from  labor  disputes.  But  it 
was  not  without  foreboding  that  this  development 
was  witnessed  by  the  adherents  of  the  statun  quo. 
According  to  a  magazine  writer  of  1853- 

After  prescribing  the  rate  of  remuneration  many  of  the 
Trades'  Unions  go  to  enact  laws  for  the  government  of 
the  respective  <iepartments,  to  all  of  which  the  employ- 
er must  assent.  .  .  .  The  result  even  thus  far  is  that 
there  is  found  no  limit  to  this  .species  of  encroachment. 
If  workmen  may  dictate  the  hours  and  mode  of  service, 
and  the  number  and  descriptij)n  of  hands  to  \tc  em- 
ployed, they  may  also  regulate  other  itenjs  of  the 
bu.siness  with  which  their  labor  is  connected.  Thus 
we  find  that  within  a  few  days,  in  the  city  «»f  New 
York,  the  longshoremen  have  i  akcn  by  force  from  their 
several  statiims  the  horses  and  labor-saving  gear  u.^ed 
for  deliver  iig  cargoes,  it  being  part  of  their  regulations 
not  to  allow  of  such  competition. 

The  gravitation  towards  coninxm  action  was 
felt  over  a  wide  area  during  this  periml.  Some 
trades  met  in  national  convention   to  lay  down 


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rules  for  their  craft.      One  of  the  earhest  national 
meetings  was  that  of  the  carpet-weavers  (1846)  in 
New  York  City,  when  thirty-four  delegates,  repre- 
senting over  a  thousand  operatives,  adopted  rules 
and  took  steps  to  prevent  a  reduction  in  wages 
The  National  Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers 
met  in  1850,  and  out  of  this  emerged  two  years 
later  an  organization  called  the  National  Typo- 
graphical  Union,   which   ten  years  later  still,  on 
the  admission  of  some  Canadian  unions,  became 
the  International  Typographical  Union  of  North 
America;  and  as  such  it  flourishes  today.     In  1855 
the   Journeymen    Stone    Cutters'   Association   of 
North  America  wa.s  organized  and  in  the  following 
year  the  National  Trade  Association  of  Hat  Finish- 
ers.  th»-  forerunner  of  ihv  United  Hatters  of  North 
America      In    IH59  ti^  Iron   Molders'  Union  of 
North  Aiiirrica  h^gan  its  aggressivt.  ,Hreer. 

Tke  mnr-eptioa  of  a  national  trade  unity  was 
now  well  kmn^;  compactly  organized  national 
and  Im-al  trade  unions  with  very  definite  industrial 
■««  were  soon  to  take  the  place  of  ephemeral, 
kioHe-jointed  associations  with  vast  and  vague 
ambitions.  EaHy  in  thi.s  period  a  new  impetus 
was  given  to  organized  labor  by  the  historic  de- 
cision of  Chief  Justice  Shaw  of  Massachusetti.  in 


TRANSITION  YEARS  61 

a  case'  brought  against  seven  bootmakers  charged 
with  conspiracy.  Their  offense  consisted  in  at- 
tempting to  induce  all  the  workmen  of  a  given 
shop  to  join  the  union  and  compel  the  master 
to  employ  only  union  men.  The  trial  court  found 
them  guilty;  but  the  Chief  Justice  dwided  that 
he  did  not  "perceive  that  it  is  criminal  for  men  to 
agree  together  to  exercise  their  own  acknowledged 
rights  in  such  a  manner  as  best  to  .subserve  their 
own  interests."  In  order  to  show  criminal  c«on- 
spiracy,  therefore,  on  the  part  of  a  lalxir  union, 
it  was  neces.sary  to  prove  that  either  the  intent  or 
the  method  was  criminal,  for  it  wa.s  not  a  criminal 
offense  to  combine  for  the  purpose  of  raising  wagt-s 
or  bettering  conditions  or  seeking  to  have  all  la- 
borers join  the  union.  The  lil>eralizing  influence 
of  this  decision  upon  labor  law  can  hardly  !»♦* 
over-estimated. 

The  period  closed  amidst  general  disturbances 
and  forelwdings,  political  and  etxmomic.  In  1857 
occurred  a  panic  which  thrust  the  problem  of 
unemployment.  <m  a  vast  scale,  befon- the  Ameri- 
can conseiousness.  Instead  (if  demanding  higher 
wages,  multitudes  now  cried  for  work.  The  march- 
ing masses,  in  New  >'ork,  carrietl  banners  asking 

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62  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

for  bread,  while  soldiers  from  Governor's  Island 
and  marines  from  the  Navy  Yard  guarded  the  Cus- 
tom House  and  the  Sub-Treasury.     From  Phila- 
delphia to  New  Orleans,  from  Boston  to  Chicago, 
came  the  same  story  of  banks  failing,  railroads 
in  bankruptcy,  factories  closing,  idle  and  hungry 
throngs  moving  restlessly  through  the  streets.     In 
New  York  40,000.  in  Lawrence  3500,  in  Philadel- 
phia 20,000,  were  estimated  to  be  out  of  work. 
Labor  learned  anew  that  its  prosperity  was  inalien- 
ably identified  with  the  well-being  of  industry  and 
commerce;  and  society  learned  that  hunger  and 
idleness  are  the  golden  opportunity  of  the  dema- 
gogue and  agitator.     The  word  "socialism"  now 
appears  more  and  more  frequently  in   the  daily 
press  and  always  a  synonym  of  destruction  or  of 
something  to  be  feared.     No  sooner  had  business 
revived  than  the  great  shadow  of  internal  strife 
was  cast  over  the  land,  and  for  the  duration  of  the 
Civil  War  the  peril  of  the  nation  absorbed  all  the 
energies  of  the  people. 


CHAPTER   IV 


AMALGAMATION 


After  Apfwinattox,  every  one  seemed  hent  on 
finding  a  .sliort  cut  to  opulence.     To  foreign  ol).ser- 
vers,  the  United  States  was  then  sii!ij)ly  a  scram- 
bling mass  of  selfish  units,  for  there  seemed  lo  be 
among  the  American  people  no  disinterested  group 
to  balance  accounts  between  the  competing  eh- 
ments  —  no  leisure  class,  living  on  secured  incomes, 
mellowed  by  generations  of  travel,  education,  and 
reflection;  no  bureaucracy  arbitrarily  guiding  the 
details  of  governmental   routine;  no  aristocracy, 
born  umpires  of  the  doings  of  their  underlings.     All 
the  manifold  currents  of  life  seemed  swallowed  up 
in  the  commercial  maelstrom.     By  the  standards 
of  what  happened  in  this  s.  ason  of  exuberance 
and  intens*'  materialism,  the  Anu'rican  p<>ople  were 
hastily  judged  by  critics  who  failed  to  see  that 
the   period    was    but   the   prelude   to   a    maturer 
national  life. 


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W  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

It  was  a  period  of  a  remarkable  industrial  expan- 
sion.    Then  "plant"  became  a  new  word  in  the 
phraseology  of  the  market  place,   denoting  the 
enlarged  factory  or  mill  and  suggesting  the  hardy 
perennial,  each  succeeding  year  putting  forth  new 
shootii  from  its  side.     The  products  of  this  seed- 
time are  seen  in  the  colossal  industrial  growths  of 
today.     Then  it  was  that  short  railway  lines  began 
to  be   welded  into  "systems."  that  the  railway 
builders  began  to  strike  out  into  the  prairies  and 
mountains   of  the   West,   and   that   partnerships 
began  to  be  merged  into  corporations  and  corpora- 
tions into  trusts,  ever  reaching  out  for  the  great- 
er markets.     Meanwhile  the  inventive  genius  of 
America  was  responding  to  the  call  of  the  time. 
In   1877  Bell  telephoned  from  Boston  to  Salem; 
two  years  later,  Brush  lighted  by  electricity  the 
streets  of  San   Francisco.     In    1882  Edison   was 
making  incandescent  electric  lights  for  New  York 
and  oiKTating  his  first  electric  car  in  Menlo  Park. 
New  Jersey. 

All  these  developments  created  a  new  demand 
for  capital.  Where  formerly  a  manufacturer  had 
ma.lf  products  to  order  or  for  a  small  number  of 
known  customers,  now  he  made  on  speculation,  for 
a  great   number  of  unknown  customers,  taking 


i 


AMALGAMATION  65 

his  risks  in  distant  markets.  Where  formerly  the 
banker  had  lent  money  on  local  security,  now  he 
gave  credit  to  vast  enterprises  far  away.  New  in- 
ventions or  industrial  processes  brought  on  new 
speculations.  This  new  demand  for  capital  made 
necessary  a  new  system  of  credits,  which  was  erect- 
ed at  first,  as  the  recurring  panics  disclosed,  on 
sand,  but  gradually,  through  costly  experience,  on 
a  more  stable  foundation. 

The  economic  and  industrial  development  of  the 
time  demanded  not  only  new  money  and  credit  but 
new  men.  A  new  type  of  executive  was  wanted, 
and  he  soon  appeared  to  satisfy  the  need.  Neither 
a  capitalist  nor  a  merchant,  he  combined  in  some 
degree  the  functions  of  both,  added  to  them  the 
greater  function  of  industrial  manager,  and  received 
from  great  business  concerns  a  high  premium  for 
his  talent  and  foresight.  This  Captain  of  Industry, 
as  he  has  been  called,  is  the  foremost  figure  of  the 
period,  the  hero  of  the  industrial  drama. 

But  much  of  what  is  admirable  in  that  generation 
of  nation  builders  is  obscured  by  the  industrial  an- 
archy which  prevailed.  Everybody  was  for  himself 
—  and  the  devil  was  busy  harvesting  the  hindmost. 
There  were  " rate-wars,"  "cut-rate  sales,"  secret  in- 
trigues, and  rebates;  and  there  were  subterranean 


'A -4 


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•        II 


««  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

passages  — some,  indeed,  scarcely  under  the  sur- 
face  —  to  council  chambers,  executive  mansions, 
and  Congress.  There  were  extreme  Huctuations 
of  industry:  prosperity  was  either  at  a  very  high 
level  or  depression  at  a  very  low  one.  Prosperity 
would  bring  on  an  expansion  of  credits,  a  rise  in 
prices,  higher  cost  of  living,  strikes  and  boycotts 
for  higher  wages;  then  depression  would  follow 
with  the  shutdown  and  that  most  distressing  of  so- 
cial diseases,  unemployment.  During  the  panic  of 
1873-74  many  thousands  of  men  marched  the 
streets  crying  earnestly  for  work. 

Between  the  panics,  strikes  became  a  part  of  the 
economic  routine  of  the  country.    They  were  ex- 
pected, just  as  pay  days  and  legal  holidays  are 
expected.     Now  for  the  first  time  came  strikes  that 
can  only  be  characterized  as  stupendous.     They 
were  not  mere  slight  economic  disturbances;  they 
were  veritable  industrial  earthquakes.     In   1873 
the  coal   miners  of  Pennsylvania,  resenting  the 
truck  system  and  the  miserable  housing  which  the 
mine  owners  forced  upon  them,  struck  by  the  tens 
of  thousands.   In  Illinois,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Mary- 
land, Ohio,  and  New  York  strikes  occurred  in  all 
sorts  of  industries.     There  were  the  usual  parades 
and  banners,  some  appealing,  some  insulting,  and 


I 


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AMALGAMATION  67 

all   the   while  the   militia  guarded  property.     In 
July,  1877,  the  men  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad  refused  to  submit  to  a  fourth  reduction 
in  wages  in  seven  years  and  struck.     From  Balti- 
more the  resentment  spread  to  Pennsylvania  and 
culminated  with  riots  in  Pittsburgh.     All  the  an- 
thracite coal  miners  struck,  followed  by  most  of  the 
bituminous  miners  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois. 
The  mihtia  were  impotent  to  subdue  the  mobs; 
Federal  troops  had  to  be  sent  hy  President  Hayes 
into  many  of  the  States;  and  a  j)roclamation  bv  the 
President  commanded  all  citizens  to  keep  the  peace. 
Thus  was  Federal  authority  introduced  to  bolster 
up  the  administrative  weakness  of  the  States,  and 
the  first  step  was  taken  on  the  road  to  industrial 
nationalization. 

The  turmoil  had  hardly  subsided  when,  in  1880, 
new  strikes  broke  out.  In  the  long  catalogue  of  the 
strikers  of  that  year  are  found  the  ribbon  weavers  of 
Philadelphia,  Paterson,  and  New  York,  the  stable- 
men of  New  York,  New  Jersej ,  and  San  Francisco, 
the  cotton  yard  workers  of  New  Orleans,  the  cotton 
weavers  of  New  England  and  New  York,  the  stock- 
yard employees  of  Chicago  an<l  Omaha,  the  potters 
of  Green  Point,  Long  Island,  the  puduiers  of  Johns- 
town and  Columbia,  Pennsylvania,  the  machinists 


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«  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

of  Buffalo,  the  tailors  of  New  York,  and  the  shoe- 
makers  of  Indiana.  The  year  1882  was  scarcely 
less  restive.  But  1886  is  marked  in  labor  annals 
as  "the  year  of  the  great  uprising."  when  twice 
as  many  strikes  as  in  any  previous  year  were  re- 
ported by  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  La- 
bor, and  when  these  strikes  reach-d  a  tragic  climax 
in  the  Chicago  Haymarket  riot*. 

It  was  during  this  feverish  »'poch  that  organized 
labor  first  entered  the  arena  of    ,  itional  politics. 
When  the  pohcy  as  to  the  natiofial  currency  be- 
came an  issue,  the  lure  of  cheap  money  drew  labor 
into  an  alliance  in  1880  with  ihe  Greenbackers. 
whose  mad  cry  added  to  the  general  unrest.     In 
this,  as  in  other  fatuous  pursuiis,  labor  was  only 
responding  to  the  forces   and   the  spirit  of  the 
hour.     These  have  been  called  the  years  of  amal- 
gamation, but  they  were  also  the  years  of  tumult, 
for.  while  amalgamation  was  achieved,  discipline 
WHS  not.     Authority  imposed  from  within  was  not 
suFcient  to  overcome  the  decentralizing  forces,  and 
just  as  big  business  had  yet  to  learn  by  self-imposed 
discipline  how  to  overcome  the   extremely  indi- 
vidualistic   tendencies    which    resulted    in    trade 
anarchy,  so  labor  had  yet  to  learn  through  disci- 
pline the  lessons  of  self-restraint.     Moreover,  in  the 


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AMALGAMATION  69 

sudden  expansion  and  great  enterprises  of  these 
days,  labor  even  more  than  capital  lost  in  stability. 
One  great  steadying  influence,  the  old  personal  rela- 
tion between  master  and  servant,  which  prevailed 
during  the  days  of  handicraft  and  even  of  the 
small  factory,  had  disappeared  almost  completely. 
Now  labor  was  put  up  on  the  market  —  a  heart- 
less term  descriptive  of  a  condition  from  which  hu- 
man beiugs  might  be  expected  to  react  violent- 
ly —  and  they  did,  for  human  nature  refused  to 
be  an  inert,  marketable  thing. 

The  labor  market  must  expand  with  the  trader's 
market.  In  1860  there  were  about  one  and  a  third 
million  vvage-eamers  in  the  United  States;  in  1870 
well  over  two  million;  in  1880  nearly  two  and 
three-quarters  million;  and  in  1890  over  four  and  a 
quarter  million .  The  city  sucked  them  in  from  the 
country;  but  by  far  the  larger  augmentation  came 
from  Europe;  and  the  immigrant,  normally  opti- 
mistic, often  untaught,  sometimes  sullen  and  filled 
with  a  destructive  resentment,  and  always  accus- 
tomed to  low  standards  of  living,  added  to  the 
armies  of  labor  his  vast  and  complex  bulk. 

There  were  two  paramount  issues  —  wages  and 
the  hours  of  labor  —  to  which  all  other  issues  were 
and  always  have  been  secondary.     Wages  tend 


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70  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

constantly  to  become  inadequate  when  the  stand- 
ard of  living  is  steadily  rising,  and  they  consequent- 
ly require  periodical  readjustment.    Hours  of  labor, 
of  course,  are  not  subject  in  the  same  degree  to 
external  conditions.     But  the  tendency  has  always 
been  toward  a  shorter  day.    In  a  previous  chap- 
ter, the  inception  of  the  ten-hour  movement  was 
outlined.     Presently  there  began  the  eight-hour 
movement.    As  early  as  1842  the  carpenters  and 
caulkers  of  the  Charleston  Navy  Yard  achieved  an 
eight-hour  day;  but  1863  may  more  proper'y  be 
taken  as  the  beginning  of  the  movement.     In  this 
year  societies  were  organized  in  Boston  and  its  vi- 
cinity  for  the  precise  purpose  of  winning  the  eight- 
hour  day,  and  soon  afterwards  a  national  Eight- 
Hour  League  was  established  with  local  leagues 
extending  from  New  England  to  San  Francisco 
and  New  Orleans. 

This  movement  received  an  intelligible  philoso- 
phy, and  so  a  new  vitality,  from  Ira  Steward, 
a  member  of  the  Boston  Machinists'  and  Black- 
smiths' Union.  Writing  as  a  uorkingman  for  work- 
ingmen,  Steward  found  in  the  standard  of  living 
the  true  reason  for  a  shorter  workday.  With  beau- 
tiful simplicity  he  pointed  out  to  the  laboring  man 
that  the  shorter  period  of  labor  would  not  mean 


J 
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AMALGAMATION  71 

smaller  pay,  and  to  the  employer  that  it  would  not 
mean  a  diminished  output.     On  the  contrary,  it 
would  be  mutually  beneficial,  for  the  unwearied 
workman  could  produce  as  much  in  the  shorter  day 
as  the  wearied  workman  in  the  longer.     "As  long," 
Steward  wrote,  "as  tired  human  hands  do  most  of 
the  world's  hard  work,  the  sentimenta    pretense 
of  honoring   and    respecting    the    homy-handed 
toiler  is  as  false  and  absurd  as  the  idea  that  a 
solid  foundation  for  a  house  can  be  made  out  of 
soap  bubbles." 

In  1865  Steward's  pamphlet,  A  Reduction  of  Hours 
and  Increase  of  Wages,  was  widely  circulated  by 
the  Boston  Labor  Reform  Association.     It  em- 
phasized the  value  of  leisure  and  its  beneficial  re- 
flex effect  upon  both  production  and  consumption. 
Gradually  these  well  reasoned  and  conservatively 
expressed  doctrines   found    champions    such    as 
Wendell  Phillips.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  Hor- 
ace Greeley  to  give  them  wider  publicity  and  to 
impress  them  upon  the  public  consciousness.     In 
1867   Illinois,   Missouri,  and  New   York  passed 
eight-hour  laws  and  Wisconsin  declared  eight  hours 
a  day's  work  for  women  and  children.     In  .868 
Congress  established  an  eight-hour  day  for  public 
work.     These  were  promising  signs,  though  the 


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'ii  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

battle  was  still  far  from  being  won.  The  eight- 
hour  day  has  at  last  received  "the  sanction  of 
society"  —  to  use  the  words  of  President  Wilson 
in  his  message  to  Congress  in  1916,  when  he  called 
for  action  to  avert  a  great  railway  strike.  But  to 
win  that  sanction  required  over  half  a  century  of 
popular  agitation,  discussion,  and  economic  and 
political  evolution. 

Such,  in  brief,  were  the  general  b-isiness  con- 
ditions of  the  country  and  the  issues  which  en- 
gaged the  energies  of  labor  reformers  during  the 
period  following  the  Civil  War.    Meanwhile  great 
changes  were  made  in  labor  organizations.    Many 
of  the  old  unions  were  reorganized,  and  numer- 
ous local  amalgamations  took  place.     Most  of  the 
organizations  now  took  the  form  of  secret  socie- 
ties whose  initiations  were  marked  with  naive  for- 
malism and  whose  routines  were  c^'  _ted  by  a 
group  of  officers  with  royal  titles  and  fortified  by 
signs,  passwords,  and  ritual.    Some  of  these  or- 
ders decorated  the    faithful  with  high-sounding 
degrees.     The  societies  adopted  fantastic  names 
such  as  "The  Supreme  Mechanical  Order  of  the 
Sun."  "The  Knights  of  St.  Crispin,"  and  "The 
Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor."  of  which 
more  presently. 


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AMALGAMATION  73 

Meanwhile,  too,  there  was  a  growing  desire  to 
unify  the  workers  of  the  country  by  some  sort  of 
national  organization.    The  outcome  was  a  notable 
Labor  Congress  held  at  Baltimore  in  August,  1866. 
which  included  all  kinds  of  labor  organizations 
and  was  attended  by  seventy-seven  delegates  fro-n 
thirteen  States.     In  the  light  of  subsequent  events 
its  resolutions  now  seem  conservative  and  con- 
structive.    This  Congress  believed  that,  "all  re- 
forms in  the  labor  movement  can  only  be  effected  by 
an  intelligent,  systematic  effort  of  the  industrial 
classes  .  .  .  through  the  trades  organizations. "    Of 
strikes  it  declared  that "  they  have  been  injudicious 
and  ill-advised,  the  result  of  impulse  rather  than 
principle.  ...  and  we  would  therefore  discounte- 
nance them  except  as  a  dernier  ressort,  and  when  all 
means  for  an  amicable  and  honorable  adjustment 
has  been  abandoned."     It  issued  a  cautious  and 
carefully  phrased  Address  to  the  Workmen  tkrough- 
ovt  the  Country,  urging  them  to  organize  and  assur- 
ing them  that  "the  first  thing  to  be  accomplished 
before    we    can    hope   for   any   great   results    is 
the  thorough  organization  of  all  the  departments 
of  labor. " 

The  National  Labor  Union  which  resulted  from 
t^'"«  convention  held  seven  Annual   Congresses, 


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74  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

and  its  proceedings  show  a  statesmanlike  conser- 
vatism and  avoid  extreme  radicalism.     This  or- 
ganization, which  at  its  high  tide  represented  a 
membership  of  640,000,  in  its  brief  existence  was 
influential  in  three  important    matters:    first,   it 
pointed  the  way  to  national  amalgamation  and 
was  thus  a  forerunner  of  more  lasting  efforts  in 
this  direction;  secondly,  it  had  a  powerful  influence 
in  the  eight-hour  movement;  and,  thirdly,  it  was 
largely  instrumental  in  establishing  labor"  bureaus 
and  in  gathering  statistics  for  the  scientific  study 
of  labor  questions.     But  the  National  Labor  Union 
unfortunately    went   into    politics;    and    poHtics 
proved  its   undoing.    Upon   affiliating   with   the 
Labor  Reform  party  it  dwindled  rapidly,  and  after 
1871  it  disappeared  entirely. 

One  of  the  typical  organizations  of  the  time 
was  the  Order  of  the  Knights  of  St.  Crispin,  so 
named  after  the  patron  saint  of  the  shoemakers, 
and  accessible  only  to  members  of  that  craft.  It 
was  first  conceived  in  1864  by  Newell  Daniels,  a 
shoemaker  in  Milford,  Massachusetts,  but  no  or- 
ganization was  effected  until  1867,  when  the  foun- 
der had  moved  to  Milwaukee.  The  ritual  and 
constitution  he  had  prepared  was  accepted  then  by 
a  group  of  seven  shoemakers,  and  in  four  years 


^  I 


AMALGAMATION  75 

this  insignificant  mustard  seed  had  grown  into  a 
great  tree.    The  story  i.s  told  by  Frank  K.  Foster,' 
who  says,  speaking  of  the  order  in  1868 :     **  It  made 
and  unmade  pc'iticians;  it  established  a  monthly 
journal;  it  started  cooperative  stores;  it  fought, 
often  successfully,  against  threatened  reductions 
of  wages  .  .  .;   it  became  the  undoubted  foremost 
trade  organization  of  the  world. "     But  within  five 
years  the  order  was  rent  by  factionalism  and  in 
1878  was  acknowledged  to  be  dead.     It  perished 
from  various  causes  —  partly  because  it  failed  to 
assimilate  or  imbue  with  its  doctrines  the  thou- 
sands of   workmen   who   subscribed  to  its  rules 
and  ritual,  partly  because  of  the  jealousy  and 
treachery  which  is  the  fruitage  of  sudden  pros- 
perity, partly  because  of  failure  to  fulfill  the  fer- 
vent hopes  of  thousands  who  joined  it  as  a  prelude 
to  the  industrial  millennium;  but  especially  it  failed 
to  endure  because  it  was  founded  on  an  economic 
principle  which  could  not  be  imposed  upon  society. 
The  rule  which  embraced  this  principle  reads  as 
follows:  "No  member  of  this  Order  shall  teach,  or 
aid  in  teaching,  any  fact  or  facts  of  boot  or  shoe- 
making,  unless  the  lodge  shall  give  permission  by 

■  The  Labor  Movement,  the  Problem  of  Today,  edited  hv  Georee 
E.  McNeill.  Chapter  VIII. 


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76  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

a  three-f(,arths  vote  .  .  .  provided  that  this  arti- 
cle  shall  not  be  so  construed  as  to  prevent  a  father 
from  teaching  his  own  son.     Provided  also,  that 
this  article  shall  not  be  so  construed  as  to  hinder 
any  member  of  this  organization  from  learning  any 
or  all  parts  of  the  trade."     The  medieval  craft 
guild  could  not  so  easily  be  revived  in  these  days 
of  rapid  changes,  when  a  new  stitching  machine 
replaced  in  a  day  a  hundred  workmen.     And  so 
the  Knights  of  gt.  Crispin  fell  a  victim  to  iheir 
own  greed. 

The  Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  an- 
other of  those  societies  of  workingmen,  was  organ- 
ized in  November,  1869,  by  Uriah  S.  Stephens,  a 
Philadelphia  garment  cutter,  with  the  assistance 
of  six  fellow  craftsmen.     It  has  been  said  of  Ste- 
phens that  he  was  "a  man  of  great  force  of  char- 
acter, a  skilled  mechanic,  with  the  love  of  books 
which  enabled  him  to  pursue  his  studies  during 
his  apprenticeship,   and  feeling  withal  a  strong 
affection  for  secret  organizations,  having  been  for 
many  years  connected  with  the  Masonic  Order." 
He  was  to  have  been  edu<  ited  for  the  ministry 
but,  owing  to  financial  reverses  in  his  family,  was 
obliged  instead  to  learn  a  trade.     Later  he  taught 
school  for  a  few  years,   traveled  extensively  in 


AMALGAMATION  77 

the  West  Indies,  South  America,  and  California, 
and  became  an  accomplished  public  speaker  and 
a  diligent  observer  of  social  conditions. 

Stephens  and  his  six  associates  had  witnessed 
the  dissolution  of  the  local  garment  cutters'  union. 
They  resolved  that  the  new  society  should  not  be 
limited  by  the  lines  of  their  own  trade  but  should 
embrace  "  all  branches  of  honorable  toil. "    Subse- 
quently a  rule  was  adopted  stipulating  that  at 
least  three-fourths  of  the  membership  of  lodges 
must  be  wage-earners  eighteen  years  of  age.   More- 
over, "no  one  who  either  sells  or  makes  a  living,  or 
any  part  of  it,  by  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks 
either  as  manufacturer,  dealer,  or  agent,  or  through 
any  member  of  his  family,  can  be  admitted  to 
meLflbership  in  this  order;  and  no  lawyer,  bank- 
er, professional  gambler,  or  stock  broker  can  be 
admitted. "     They  chose  their  motto  from  Solon, 
the  wisest  of  lawgivers:  "That  is  the  most  per- 
fect government  in  which  an  injury  to  one  is  the 
■^  of  all";  and  they  took  their  preamble 
i         «iurke,  the  most  philosophical  of  statesmen: 
^n  bad  men  combine,  the  good  must  asso- 
ciate, else  they  will  fall,  one  by  one,  an  unpitied 
sacrifice  in  a  contemptible  struggle." 
The  order  was  a  secret  society  and  for  years 


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78  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

kept  its  name  from  the  public.    It  was  generally 
known  as  the  "Five  Stars."  because  of  the  five  as- 
terisks that  represented  its  name  in  all  public  no- 
tices.    WJiile  mysterious  initials  and  secret  cere- 
monies  gratified  the  members,  they  aroused     cor- 
responding  antagonism,  even  fear,  among  the  pub- 
he,  especially  a.  the  order  grew  to  giant  size.    What 
were  the  potencies  of  a  secret  organization  that  had 
only  to  post  a  few  mysterious  words  and  symbols 
to  gather  hundreds  of  workingmen  in  their  halls? 
And  what  plottings  went  on  behind  those  locked 
and  guarded  doors.?    To  allay  public  hostility  se- 
crecy was  gradually  removed  and  in  1881  was  en- 
tirely abolished  -  not.  however,  without  serious 
opposition  from  the  older  members. 

The  atmosphere  of  high  idealism  in  which  the  or- 
der had  been  conceived  continued  to  be  fostered  by 
Stephens,  its  founder  and  its  first  Grand  Mas- 
ter  Workman.     He   extolled   justice,   discounte- 
nanced violence,  and  pleaded  for  "the  mutual  de- 
velopment  and  moral  elevation  of  mankind."    H.'" 
exhortations  were  free  from  that  narrow  class  an- 
tagonism  which  frequently  characterizes  the  utter- 
ances of  labor.     One  of  his  associates,  too.  invoked 
the  spirit  of  chivalry,  of  true  knighthood,  when  he 
said  that  the  old  trade  union  had  failed  because  "it 


^^Vi 


AMALGAMATION  79 

had  failed  to  recognize  the  rights  of  man  and  looked 
only  to  the  rights  of  tradesmen,"  that  the  labor 
movement  needed  "something  that  will  develop 
more  of  charity,  less  of  selfishness,  more  of  gener- 
osity, less  of  stinginess  and  nearness,  than  the  av- 
erage society  has  yet  disclosed  to  its  members." 
Nor  were  these  ideas  .  nd  principles  betrayed  by 
Stephens's  successor,  Terence  V.  Powderly,  who 
became  Grand  Master  in  1879  and  served  dur- 
ing the  years  when  the  order  attained  its  greatest 
power.    Powderly,  also,  was  a  conservative  ideal- 
ist.    His  career  may  be  regarded  as  a  good  ex- 
ample of  the  rise  of  many  an  American  labor 
leader.     He  had  been  a  poor  boy.     At  thirteen  he 
began  work  as  a  switchtender;  at  seventeen  he  Wcis 
apprenticed  as  machinist;  at  nineteen  he  was  ac- 
tive in  a  machinists'  and  blacksmiths'  union.    After 
working  at  his  trade  in  various  places,  he  at  length 
settled  in  Scranton,   Pennsylvania,   and  became 
one  of  the  organizers  of  thj  Greenback  Labor 
party.     He  was  twice  elected  mayor  of  Scranton, 
and  might  have  been  elected  for  a  third  term  had 
he  not  decline^      »  serve,  preferring  to  devote  all 
his  time  to  tht,  society  of  which  he  was  Grand 
Master.     The  obligations  laid  upon  every  member 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor  were  impressive: 


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THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


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Labor  is  noble  and  holy.    To  defend  it  from  degrada 
tion;  to  divest  it  of  the  evils  to  body,  mind  and  estate 
which  Ignorance  and  greed  have  imposed;  to  rescue  the 
toiler  from  the  grasp  of  the  selfish  —  is  a  work  worthy 
of  the  noblest  and  best  of  our  race.    In  all  the  multi- 
farious branches  of  trade  capital  has  its  combinations; 
and,  whether  intended  or  not.  it  crushes  the  manly 
hopes  of  labor  and  tramples  poor  humanity  in  the 
dust.    We  mean  no  conflict  with  legitimate  enterprise, 
no  antagonism  to  necessary  capital;  but  men  in  their 
haste  and  greed,  blinded  by  self-interests,  overlook  the 
interests  of  others  and  sometimes  violate  the  rights 
of  those  they  deem  helpless.    We  mean  to  uphold  the 
dignity  of  labor,  to  affirm  the  nobility  of  all  who  earn 
their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brows.    We  mean  to 
create  a  healthy  public  o,  -nion  on  the  subject  of  labor 
(the  only  creator  of  values  or  capital)  and  the  justice 
of  its  receiving  a  full,  just  share  of  the  values  or  capital 
it  has  created.    We  shall,  with  all  our  strength,  support 
laws  made  to  harmonize  the  interests  of  labor  and 
capital,  for  labor  alone  gives  life  and  value  to  capital, 
and  also  those  laws  which  tend  to  lighten  the  exhaus- 
tiveness  of  toil.    To  pause  in  his  toil,  to  devote  himself 
to  his  own  interests,  to  gather  a  knowledge  of  the 
world's  commerce,  to  unite,  combine  anA  cooperate 
in  the  great  army  c*  peace  and  industry,  to  nourish 
and  cherish,  build  and  develop  the  temple  he  lives  in 
is  the  highest  and  noblest  duty  of  man  to  himself,  to 
his  fellow  men  and  to  his  Creator. 

The  phenomenal  growth  and  collapse  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor  is  one  of  the  outstanding  events 


TERENCE  V.  tOWDERI  I 
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AMALGAMATION  81 

in  American  <  conomic  history.    The  membership 
in  1869  consisted  of  eleven  tailors.    This  small 
beginning  grew  into  the  famous  Assembly  No.  1. 
Sotn  the  ship  carpenters  wanted  to  join,  and  As- 
sembly No.  2  was  organized.    The  shawl-weavers 
formed  another  assembly,  the  carpet-weavers  an- 
other, and  so  on,  until  over  twenty  assemblies,  cov- 
ering almost  every  trade,  had  been  organized  in 
Philadelphia  alone.     By  1875  there  were  eighty  as- 
semblies in  the  city  and  its  vicinity.     As  the  num- 
ber of  lodges  multiplied,  it  became  necessary  to 
establish  a  common  agency  or  authority,  and  a 
Committee  on  the  Good  of  the  Order  was  consti- 
tuted to  represent  all  the  local  units,  but  this  com- 
mittee was  soon  superseded  by  a  delegate  body 
known  as  the  District  Assembly.     As  the  move- 
ment spread  from  city  to  city  and  from  State  to 
State,  a  General  Assembly  was  created  in  1878 
to  hold  annual  conventions  and  to  be  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  order.     In  1883  the  membership  of 
the  order  was  52,000;  within  three  years,  it  had 
mounted  to  over  700,000;  and  at  the  climax  of 
its  career  the  society  boasted  over  1,000,000  work- 
men in  the  United  States  and  Canada  who  had 
vowed  fealty  to  its  knighthood. 
It  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  every  member 


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82  THE  ARMIEvS  OF  LABOR 

of  this  vast  horde  so  suddenly  brought  together 
understood  the  obligations  of  the  workman's  chiv- 
alry. The  selfish  and  the  lawless  rushed  in  with 
the  prudent  and  sincere.  But  a  resolution  of  the 
executive  board  to  stop  the  initiation  of  new  mem- 
bers came  too  late.  The  undesirable  and  radi- 
cal element  in  many  communities  gained  control  of 
local  assemblies,  and  the  conservatism  and  intel- 
ligence of  the  national  leaders  became  merely  a 
shield  for  the  rowdy  and  the  ignorant  who  brought 
the  entire  order  into  popular  disfavor. 

The  crisis  came  in  1886.  In  the  early  months 
of  this  turbulent  year  there  were  neariy  five  hun- 
dred labor  disputes,  most  of  them  involving  an 
advance  in  wages.  An  epidemic  of  strikes  then 
spread  over  the  country,  many  of  them  actual- 
ly conducted  by  the  Knights  of  Labor  and  all  of 
them  associated  in  the  public  mind  with  that  or- 
der. One  of  the  most  important  of  these  occurred 
on  the  Southwestern  Railroad.  In  the  preceding 
year,  the  Knights  had  increased  their  lodges  in 
St.  Louis  from  five  to  thirty,  and  these  were  un- 
der the  domination  of  a  coarse  and  ruthless  dis- 
trict leader.  When  in  February,  1886,  a  me- 
chanic, working  in  the  shops  of  the  Texas  and  Pa- 
cific Railroad  at  Marshall,  Texas,  was  discharged 


AMALGAMATION  8S 

for  cause  and  the  road  refused  to  reinstate  him, 
a  strike  ensued  which  spread  over  the  entire  six 
thousand  miles  of  the  Gould  system;  and  St.  Louis 
became  the  center  of  the  tumult.  After  nearly 
two  months  of  violence,  the  outbreak  ended  in  the 
complete  collapse  of  the  strikers.  This  result  was 
doubly  damaging  to  the  Knights  of  Labor,  for 
they  had  oflScially  taken  charge  of  the  strike  and 
were  censured  on  the  one  hand  for  their  conduct  of 
the  struggle  and  on  the  other  for  the  defeat  which 
they  had  sustained. 

In  the  same  year,  against  the  earnest  advice  of 
the  national  leaders  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  the 
employees  of  the  Third  Avenue  Railway  in  New 
York  began  a  strike  which  lasted  many  months  and 
which  was  characterized  by  such  violence  that  po- 
licemen were  detailed  to  guard  every  car  leaving 
the  barns.    In  Chicago  the  freight  handlers  struck, 
and  some  60,000  workmen  stopped  work  in  sym- 
pathy.   On  the  3d  of  May,  at  the  McCormick 
Harvester  Works,  several  strikers  were  wounded 
in  a  tussle  with  the  police.    On  the  following  day 
a  mass  meeting  held  in  Haymarket  Square,  Chi- 
cago, was  harangued  by  a  number  of  anarchists. 
When  the  police  attempted  to  disperse  the  mob, 
guns  were  fired  at  the  officers  of  the  law  and  a  bomb 


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84  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

was  hurled  into  their  throng,  killing  seven  and 
wounding  sixty.  For  this  crime  seven  anarchists 
were  indicted,  found  guilt;v',  and  sentenced  to 
be  hanged.  The  Knights  of  Labor  passed  resolu- 
tions asking  clemency  for  these  murderers  and 
thereby  grossly  oflFended  public  opinion,  and  that 
at  a  time  when  public  opinion  was  frightened  by 
these  outrages,  angered  by  the  disclosures  of  bra- 
zen plotting,  and  upset  by  the  sudden  conscious- 
ness that  the  immunity  of  the  United  States  from 
the  red  terror  of  Europe  was  at  an  end. 

Powderly  and  the  more  conservative  national 
oflScers  who  were  opposed  to  these  radical  machin- 
ations were  strong  enough  in  the  Grand  Lodge  in 
the  following  year  to  suppress  a  vote  of  sympathy 
for  the  condemned  anarchists.    The  radicals  there- 
upon seceded  from  the  organization.     This  out- 
come, however,  did  not  restore  the  order  to  the 
confidence  of  the  public,  and  its  strength  now  rap- 
idly declined.     A  loss  of  300,000  members  for  the 
year  1888  was  reported.     Early  in  the  nineties, 
financial  troubles  compelled  the  sale  of  the  Phila- 
delphia headquarters  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  and 
the  removal  to  more  modest  quarters  in  Washing- 
ton.   A  remnant  of  members  still  r*  uin  an  organi- 
zation, but  it  is  barely  a  shadow  of  the  vast  army  of 


.    '     5 


AMALGAMATION  85 

Knights  who  at  one  time  so  hopefully  carried  on  a 
crusade  in  every  center  of  industry.  It  was  not 
merely  the  excesses  of  the  lawless  but  the  multi- 
plicity of  strikes  which  alienated  public  sympa- 
thy. Powderly's  repeated  warnings  that  strikes,  in 
and  of  themselves,  were  destructive  of  the  stable 
position  of  labor  were  shown  to  be  prophetic. 

These  excesses,  however,  were  forcing  upon  the 
public  the  idea  that  it  too  had  not  only  an  inter- 
est but  a  right  and  a  duty  in  labor  disputes.    Meth- 
ods of  arbitration  and  conciliation  were  now  dis- 
cussed in  every  legislature.     In  1883  the  House  of 
Representatives  established  a  standing  committee 
on  labor.     In  1884  a  national  Bureau  of  Labor 
was  created  to  gather  statistical  information.     In 
1886  President  Cleveland  sent  to  Congress  a  mes- 
sage which  has  become  historic  as  the  first  presi- 
dential message  devoted  to  labor.     In  this  he  nro- 
posed  the  creation  of  a  board  of  labor  commis- 
sioners who  should  act  as  official  arbiters  in  labor 
disputes,    but   Congress   was    unwilling   at   that 
time  to  take  so  advanced  a  step.     In  1888,  how- 
ever, it  enacted  a  law  providing  for  the  settle- 
ment of  railway  labor  disputes  by  arbitration,  upon 
agreement  of  both  parties. 
A  .oitration  signifies  a  judicial  attitude  of  mind,  a 


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86  TliE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

judgment  based  on  facts.  These  facts  are  derived 
from  specific  conditions  and  do  not  grow  out  of 
broad  generalizations.  Arbitral  tribunals  are  cre- 
ated to  decide  points  in  dispute,  not  philosophies 
of  human  action.  The  businesslike  organization 
of  the  new  trade  union  could  as  readily  adapt  it- 
self to  arbitration  as  it  had  already  adapted  itself, 
in  isolated  instances,  to  collective  bargaining.  A 
new  stage  had  therefore  been  reached  in  the  labor 
movement. 


s    f      . 


.  13' 


CHAPTER  V 


FEDERATION 

Experience  and  events  had  now  paved  the  way 
for  that  vast  centralization  of  industry  which  char- 
acterizes the  business  world  of  the  present  era. 
The  terms  sugar,  coffee,  steel,  tobacco,  oil,  acquire 
on  the  stock  exchange  a  new  and  precise  mean- 
ing. Seventy-five  per  cent  of  steel,  eighty-three 
per  cent  of  petroleum,  ninety  per  cent  of  sugar  pro- 
duction are  brought  under  the  control  of  indus- 
trial combinations.  Nearly  one-fourth  of  the  wage- 
earners  of  America  are  employed  by  great  cor- 
portions.  But  while  financiers  are  talking  only 
in  terms  of  millions,  while  super-organization  is 
reaching  its  eager  fingers  into  every  industry,  and 
while  the  units  of  business  are  becoming  national  in 
scope,  the  workingman  himself  is  being  taught  at 
last  to  rely  more  and  more  upon  group  action  in 
his  endeavor  to  obtain  better  wages  and  working 
conditions.    He  is  taught  also  to  widen  the  area  of 

87 


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88  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

his  organization  and  to  intensify  its  efforts.  So, 
while  the  pubHc  reads  in  the  daily  and  periodical 
press  about  the  oil  trust  and  the  cofifee  trust,  it 
is  also  being  admonished  against  a  labor  trust  and 
against  two  personages,  both  symbols  of  colossal 
economic  unrest  —  the  promoter,  or  the  stalking 
horse  of  financial  enterprise,  and  the  walking  dele- 
gate, or  the  labor  union  representative  and  only 
too  frequently  the  advance  agent  of  bitterness 
and  revenge. 

In  response  to  the  call  of  the  hour  there  appeared 
the  A  merican  Federation  of  Labor,  frequently  called 
in  these  later  days  the  labor  trust.    The  Federa- 
tion was  first  suggested  at  Terre  Haute,  Indiana, 
on  August  2,  1881,  at  a  convention  called  by  the 
Knights  of  Industry  and  the  Amalgamated  La- 
bor Union,  two  secret  societies  patterned  after  the 
model  common  at  that  period.     The  Amalgamated 
Union  was  composed  largely  of  disaffected  Knights 
of  Labor,  and  the  avowed  purpose  of  the  Conven- 
tion was  to  organize  a  new  secret  society  to  sup- 
plant the  Knights.     But  the  trades  union  element 
predominated  and  held  up  the  British  Trades  Un- 
ion and  its  powerful  annual  congress  as  a  model. 
At  this  meeting  the  needs  of  intensive  local    rgani- 
zation,  of  trades  autonomy,  and  of  comprehensive 


ri 


FEDERATION  89 

team  work  were  foreseen,  and  from  the  discussion 
there  grew  a  plan  for  a  st  ond  convention.  With 
this  meeting,  which  was  held  at  Pittsburgh  in  No- 
vember, 1881,  theactualworkofthenewassociation 
began  under  the  name,  "The  Federation  of  Organ- 
ized Trades  and  Labor  Unions  of  the  United  States 
of  America  and  Canada. " 

When  this  Federation  Umed  that  a  conven- 
tion representing  independent  trade  unions  was 
called  to  meet  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  December, 
1886,  it  promptly  altered  its  arrangements  for  its 
own  annual  session  so  that  it,  too,  met  at  the  same 
time  and  place.     Thereupon  the  Federation  effect- 
ed a  union  with  this  independent  body,  which 
represented  twenty-five  organizations.     The  new 
organization  was  called  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor.     Until  1889,  this  was  considered  as  the 
first  annual  meeting  of  the  new  organization,  but  in 
thpt  year  the  Federation  resolved  that  its  "con- 
tinuity ...  be  recognized  and  dated  from   the 
year  1881." 

For  some  years  the  membership  increased  slowly; 
but  in  1889  over  70,000  new  members  were  re- 
ported, in  1900  over  200,000,  and  from  that  time 
the  Federation  has  given  evidence  of  such  growth 
and  prosperity  that  it  easily  is  the  most  powerful 


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«  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

labor  organization  America  has  known,  and  it 
takes  its  place  by  the  side  of  the  British  Trades 
Union  Congress  as  "the  sovereign  organization  in 
the  trade  union  world."     In  1917  its  membership 
reached   2.371.434,   with    110  affiliated   national 
unions,  representing  virtually  every  element  of 
American  industry  excepting  the  railway  brother- 
hoods and  a  dissenting  group  of  electrical  workers. 
The  foundation  of  this  vast  organization  was  the 
interest  of  particular  trades  rather  than  the  inter- 
ests of  labor  in  general.     Its  membership  is  made 
up  "of  such  Trade  and  Labor  Unions  as  shall  con- 
form to  its  rules  and  regulations."     The  preamble 
of  the  Constitution  states:  "We  therefore  declare 
ourselves  in  favor  of  the  formation  of  a  thorough 
federation,  embracing  every  trade  and  labor  organ- 
ization in  America  under  the  Trade  Union  System 
of  organization."    The  Knights  of  Labor  had  en- 
deavored to  subordinate  the  parts  to  the  whole; 
the  American  Federation  is  willing  to  bend  the 
whole  to  the  needs  of  the  unit.     It  zealously  sends 
out  its  organizers  to  form  local  unions  and  has 
made  provision  that  "any  seven  wage  workers  of 
good  character  following  any  trade  or  calling"  can 
establish  a  local  union  with  federal  affiliations. 
This  vast  and  potent  organization  is  based  upon 


>  * 


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ii 


i 


II 


FEDERATION  91 

the  principle  of  trade  homogeneity  —  namely,  that 
each  trade  is  primarily  interested  in  its  own  par- 
ticular affairs  but  that  all  trades  are  interested 
in  those  general  matters  which  affect  all  laboring 
men  as  a  class.    To  combine  effectually  these  dual 
interests,  the  Federation  espouses  the  principle  of 
home  rule  in  purely  local  matters  and  of  federal 
supervision  in  all  general  matters.    It  combines, 
with  a  great  singleness  of  purpose,  so  diverse  a 
variety  of  details  that  it  touches  the  minutiae  of 
every  trade  and  places  at  the  disposal  of  the  hum- 
blest craftsman  or  laborer  the  tremendous  powers 
of  its  national  influence.  While  highly  cefitralized  in 
organization,  it  is  nevertheless  democratic  in  oper- 
ation, depending  generally  upon  the  referendum 
for  its  sanctions.    It  is  flexible  in  its  parts  and 
can  mobilize  both  its  heavy  artillery  and  its  caval- 
ry with  equal  readiness.    It  has  from  the  first  been 
managed  with  skill,  energy,  and  great  adroitness. 

The  supreme  authority  of  the  American  Feder- 
ation is  its  Annual  Convention  composed  of  d< '  j- 
gates  chosen  from  national  and  international  un- 
ions, from  state,  central,  and  local  trade  unions, 
and  'rom  fraternal  organizations.  Experience  has 
evolved  a  few  simple  rules  b>  which  the  conven- 
tion is  safeguarded  against  political  and  factional 


t: 


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debate  and  against  the  interruptions  of  "sore- 
heads."    Besides  attending  to  the  necessary  rou- 
tine, the  Convention  elects  the  eleven  national 
officers   who   form   the   executive   council   which 
guides  the  administrative  details  of  the  organi- 
zation.    The  funds  of  the  Federation  are  derived 
from  a  per  capita  tax  on  the  membership.     The 
official  organ  is  the  American  Federationist.     It  is 
interestmg  to  note  in  passing  that  over  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  labor  periodicals  together  with  a 
continual  stream  of  circulars  and  pamphlets  issue 
from  the  trades  union  press. 

The  Federation  is  divided  into  five  departments 
representing  the  most  important  groups  of  labor:' 
the  Building  Trades,  the  Metal  Trades.  Mining 
Railroad  Employees,  and  the  Union  Label  Trades  ' 
Each  of  these  departments  has  its  own  autonomous 
sphere  of  action,  its  own  set  of  officers,  its  own 
financial   arrangements,    its   own    administrative 
details.     Each  holds  an  annual  convention,  in  the 
same  place  and  week,  as  the  Federation.     Each  is 
made  up  of  affiliated  unions  only  and  confines  itself 
solely  to  the  interest  of  its  own  trades.     This  sub- 
organization  serves  as  an  admirable  clearing  house 


||  FEDERATION  9S 

and  shock-absorber  and  succeeds  in  eliminating 
much  of  the  friction  which  occurs  between  the 
several  unions. 

There  are  also  forty-three  state  branches  of  the 
Federation,  each  with  its  own  separate  organization. 
There  are  annual  state  conventions  whose  member- 
ship, however,  is  not  always  restricted  to  unions 
aflSliated  with  the  American  Federation.  Some  of 
these  state  organizatic.is  antedate  the  Federation. 

There  remain  the  local  unions,  into  personal 
touch  with  which  each  member  comes.  There 
were  in  1916  as  many  as  047  "city  centrals,"  the 
term  used  to  designate  the  affiliation  of  the  unions 
of  a  city.  The  city  centrals  are  smaller  replicas  of 
the  state  federations  and  are  made  up  of  delegates 
elected  by  the  individual  unions.  They  meet  at 
stated  intervals  and  freely  discuss  questions  relat- 
ing to  the  welfare  of  organized  labor  in  general  as 
well  as  to  local  labor  conditions  in  every  trade. 
Indeed,  vigilance  seems  to  be  the  watchword  of 
the  Central.  Organization,  wages,  trade  agree- 
ments, and  the  attitude  of  public  officials  and  city 
councils  which  even  remotely  might  affect  labor 
rarely  escape  their  scrutiny.  This  oldest  of  all  the 
groups  of  labor  organizations  remains  the  most 
vital  part  of  the  Federation. 


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M  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

The  success  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
IS  due  in  large  measure  to  the  crafty  generalship 
of  Its  President,  Samuel  Gompers,  one  of  the  most 
astute  labor  leaders  developed  by  American  econo- 
mic conditions.    He  helped  organize  the  Fed.^- 
ation.  carefully  nursed  it  through  its  tender  years 
and  boldly  and  unhesitatingly  used  its  great  power 
m  the  days  of  its  maturity.     In  fact,  in  a  very  real 
sense  the  Federation  is  Gompers,  and  Gompers  is 
the  Federation.    Bom  in  London  of  Dutch-Jewish 
hneage.  on  January  27.  1850,  the  son  of  a  cigar- 
maker.  Samuel  Gompers  was  early  apprenticed  to 
that  craft.    At  tK.  age  of  thirteen  he  went  to  New 
York  City,  where  in  the  following  year  he  joined 
the  first  cigar-makers'  union  organized  in  that  city 
He  enhsted  all  his  boyish  ardor  in  the  cause  of  the 
trade  union  and.  after  he  arrived  at  maturity,  was 
elected  successively  secretary  and  president  of  his 
union.    The  local  unions  were,  at  that  time,  gin- 
gerly feeling  their  way  towards  state  and  national 
organizati.  n.  and  in  these  early  attempts  young 
Gompers  was  active.     In  1887.  he  was  one  of  the 
delegates  to  a  national  meeting  which  constituted 
the  nucleus  of  what  is  now  the  Cigar-makers' 
International  Union. 
The  local  cigar-makers'  union  in  which  Gompers 


'■:i< 


FEDERATION  05 

received  his  necessary  preliminary  training  was  one 
of  the  most  enlightened  and  compactly  organized 
groups  of  American  labor.     It  was  one  of  the  first 
American  Unions  to  adopt  in  an  efficient  manner 
the  British  system  of  benefits  in  the  case  of  sick- 
ness, death,  or  unemployment.     It  is  one  of  the  few 
American  unions  that  persistently  encourages  skill 
in  its  craft  and  intelligence  in  its  membership.     It 
has  been  a  pioneer  in  collective  bargaining  and  in 
arbitration.     It  has  been  conservatively  and  yet 
enthusiastically  led  and  has  generally  succeeded 
in  enlisting  the  respect  and  cooperation  of  employ- 
ers.    This  union  has  been  the  kindergarten  and 
preparatory  school  of  Samuel  Gompers,  who,  dur- 
ing all  the  years  of  his  wide  activities  as  the  head 
of  the  Federation  of  Labor,  has  retained  his  mem- 
bership in   his  old   local  and  has  acted  as  first 
vice-president  of  the  Cigar-makers'  International. 
These  early  experiences,  precedents,  and  enthusi- 
asms Gompers  carried  with  him  into  the  Federa- 
tion of  Labor.    He  was  one  of  the  original  rp-oup 
of  trade  union  representatives  who  organized  the 
Federation  in  1881.     In  the  following  year  he  was 
its  President.     Since  1885  he  has,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  single  year,  been  annually  chosen  as 
President.     During  the  first  years  the  Federation 


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»6  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

was  very  weak,  and  it  was  even  doubtful  if  the 
organization  could  survive  the  bitter  hostility  of 
the  powerful  Knights  of  Labor.     It  could  pay  its 
President  no  salary  and  could   barely  meet  his 
expense  account.'     Gompers  played  a  large  part 
in  the  complete  reorganization  of  the  Federation 
m  1886.     He  subsequently  received  a  yearly  salary 
of  $1000  so  that  he  could  devote  all  of  his  time  to 
the  cause.     From  this  year  forward  the  growth  of 
the  Federation  was  steady  and  healthy.     In  the 
last  decade  it  has  been  phenomenal.     The  earlier 
policy  of  caution  has,  however,  not  been  discarded 
—  for  caution  is  the  word  that  most  aptly  de- 
scribes the  methods  of  Gompers.    From  the  first,  he 
tested  every  step  carefully,  like  a  wary  mountain- 
eer, before  he  urged  his  organization  to  follow. 
From  the  beginning  Gompers  has  followed  three 
general  lines  uf  policy.     First,  he  has  built  the  im- 
posing str.     are  of  his  Federation  upon  the  au- 
tonon:^.  of  the  constituent  unions.     This  is  the  se- 
cret of  the  united  enthusiasm  of  the  Federation. 
It  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  instinct  for  home  rule  applied 
to  trade  union  politics.    In  the  tentative  years  of  its 
early  struggles,  the  Federation  could  hope  for  survi- 
val only  upon  the  suffrance  of  the  trade  union,  and 

•  In  one  of  the  early  years  this  was  |18. 


i^ 


U-    u 


FEDERATION  97 

today,  when  the  Federation  has  become  powerful, 
its  potencies  rest  upon  the  same  foundation. 

Secondly,  Gompers  has  always  advocated  frugal- 
ity in  money  matters.  His  Federation  is  powerful 
but  not  rich.  Its  demands  upon  the  resources  of 
the  trade  unions  have  always  been  moderate,  and 
the  salaries  paid  have  been  modest.'  When  the 
Federation  erected  a  new  building  for  its  headquar- 
ters in  Washington  a  few  years  ago,  it  symbolized 
in  its  architecture  and  equipment  this  modest  yet 
adequate  and  substantial  financial  policy.  Amer- 
ican labor  unions  have  not  yet  achieved  the  op- 
ulence, ambitions,  and  splendors  of  the  guilds  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  do  not  yet  direct  their  activities 
from  splendid  guild  halls. 

In  the  third  place,  Gompers  has  always  insisted 
upon  the  democratic  methods  of  debate  and  refer- 
endum in  reaching  important  decisions.  However 
arbitrary  and  intolerant  his  impulses  may  have 
been,  and  however  dogmatic  and  narrow  his 
conclusions  in  regard  to  the  relation  of  labor  to 
society  and  towards  the  employer  (and  his  Dutch 
inheritance  gi.es  him  great  obstinacy),  he  has 

'  Before  1899  the  annual  income  of  the  Federation  was  leaa  than 
tU.OOO;  in  1901  it  reached  the  $100,000  mark;  and  since  18r:>  it  haa 
exceeded  $200,000. 
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98  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

astutely  refrained  from  too  obviously  bossing  his 
own  organization. 

With  this  sagacity  of  leadership  Gompers  has 
combined  a  fearlessness  that  sometimes  verges  on 
brazenness.    He  has  never  hesitated  to  enter  a  con- 
test when  it  seemed  prudent  to  him  to  do  so.    He 
crossed  swords  with  Theodore  Roosevelt  on  more 
than  one  occasion  and  with  President  Eliot  of  Har- 
vard in  a  historic  newspaper  controversy  over  trade 
union  exclusiveness.    He  has  not  been  daunted  by 
conventions,  commissions,  courts,  congresses,  or 
public  opinion.   During  the  long  term  of  his  Federa- 
tion presidency,  which  is  unparalleled  in  labor  his- 
tory and  alone  is  conclusive  evidence  of  his  executive 
skill,  scarcely  a  year  has  passed  without  some  dra- 
matic incident  to  cast  the  searchlight  of  publicity 
upon  him  —  a  court  decision,  a  congressional  ix.- 
quiry,  a  grand  jury  inquisition,  a  great  strike,  a 
nation-wide  boycott,  a  debate  with  noted  public 
men,  a  political  maneuver,  or  a  foreign  pilgrimage. 
Whenever  a  constituent  union  in  the  Federation 
has  been  the  object  of  attack,  he  has  jumped  into 
the  fray  and  has  rarely  emerged  humiliated  from 
the  encounter.     This  is  the  more  surprising  when 
one  recalls  that  he  possesses  the  limitations  of  the 
zealot  and  the  dogmatism  of  the  partisan. 


I 


FEDERATION  99 

One  of  the  most  important  functions  of  Gompers 
has  been  that  of  national  lobbyist  for  the  Feder- 
ation. He  was  one  of  the  earliest  champions  of 
the  eight-hour  day  and  the  Saturday  half-holiday. 
He  has  energetically  espoused  Federal  child  labor 
legislation,  the  restriction  of  immigration,  alien 
contract  labor  laws,  and  employers'  liability  laws. 
He  advocated  the  creation  of  a  Federal  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  which  has  recently  developed  into  a 
cabinet  secretariat.  His  legal  bete  noire,  however, 
was  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law  as  applied  to  la- 
bor unions.  For  many  years  he  fought  vehement- 
ly for  an  amending  act  exempting  the  laboring  class 
from  the  rigors  of  that  famous  statute.  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  with  characteristic  candor  told  a 
delegation  of  Federation  officials  who  called  on 
him  to  enhst  his  sympathy  in  their  attempt,  that 
he  would  enforce  the  law  impartially  against  law- 
breakers, rich  and  poor  alike.  Roosevelt  recom- 
mended to  Congress  the  passage  of  an  amendment 
exempting  "  combinations  existing  for  and  engaged 
in  the  promotion  of  innocent  and  proper  pur- 
poses." An  exempting  bill  was  passed  by  Con- 
gress but  was  vetoed  by  President  Taft  on  the 
ground  tH«it  it  was  class  legislation.  Finally,  during 
President  Wilson's  administration,  the  Federation 


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100  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

accomplished  its  purpose,  first  indirectly  by  a  rider 
on  an  appropriation  bill,  then  directly  by  the 
Clayton  Act,  which  specificai'  -  declared  labor 
combinations,  instituted  for  the  "purpose  of  mu- 
tual help  and  ...  not  conducted  for  profit '" 
to  be  in  restraint  of  trade.  Both  measur  ere 
signed  by  the  President.  Encouraged  by  their 
success,  the  Federation  leaders  have  moved  with 
a  renewed  energy  against  the  other  legal  citadel 
of  their  antagonists,  the  use  of  the  injunction  in 
strike  cases. 

Gompers  has  thus  been  the  political  watchman 
of  the  labor  interests.  Nothing  pertaining,  even 
remotely,  to  labor  conditions  escapes  the  vigilance 
of  his  Washington  oflSce.  During  President  Wil- 
son's administration,  Gompers's  influence  achieved 
a  power  second  to  none  in  the  political  field,  ow- 
ing partly  to  the  political  power  of  the  labor  vote 
which  he  ingeniously  marshalled,  partly  to  the 
natural  inclination  of  the  dominant  political  party, 
and  partly  to  the  strategic  position  of  labor  in  the 
war  industries. 

The  Great  War  put  an  unprecedented  strain 
upon  the  American  Federation  of  Labor.  In 
every  center  of  industry  laborers  of  foreign  birth 
early  showed  their  racial  sympathies,  and  under 


''1 


FEDERATION  lOl 

the  stimuli  of  the  intriguing  German  and  Austrian 
ambassadors  sinister  plots  for  crippling  munitions 
plants  and  the  shipping  industries  were  hatched 
everywhere.  Moreover,  workingmen  became  res- 
tive under  the  burden  of  increasing  prices,  and 
strikes  for  higher  wages  occurred  almost  daily. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  War,  the  oflScers  of  the 
Federation  maintained  a  calm  and  neutral  atti- 
tude which  increased  in  vigilance  as  the  strain 
upon  American  patience  and  credulity  increased. 
As  soon  as  the  United  States  decla  d  war,  the 
whole  energies  of  the  oflBcials  of  the  Federation 
were  cast  into  the  national  cause.  In  1917,  under 
the  leadership  of  Gompers,  and  as  a  practical  anti- 
dote to  the  I.  W.  W.  and  the  foreign  labor  and 
pacifist  organization  known  as  The  People's  Coun- 
cil, there  was  organized  The  American  Alliance 
for  Labor  and  Democracy  in  order  "to  American- 
ize the  labor  movement."  Its  campaign  at  once 
became  nation  wide.  Enthusiastic  meetings  were 
held  in  the  great  manufacturing  centers,  stimulated 
to  enthusiasm  by  the  incisive  eloquence  of  Gom- 
pers. At  the  annual  convention  of  the  Federa- 
tion held  in  Buffalo  in  November,  1917,  full 
endorsement  was  given  to  the  Alliance  by  a  vote  of 
21,602  to  402.    In  its  formal  statement  the  Alliance 


I 

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102  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

declared:  "It  is  our  purpose  to  try,  by  educational 
methods,  to  bring  about  a  more  American  spirit 
in  the  labor  movement,  so  that  what  is  now  the 
clear  expression  of  the  vast  majority  may  become 
the  conviction  of  all.  Where  we  find  ignorance,  we 
shall  educate.  Where  we  find  something  worse,  we 
shall  have  to  deal  as  the  situation  demands.  But 
we  are  going  to  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  put 
a  stop  to  anti-American  activities  among  work- 
ers." And  in  this  patriotic  effort  the  Alliance  was 
successful. 

This  was  the  first  great  step  taken  by  Gompers 
and  the  Federation.     The  second  was  equally  im- 
portant.   With  characteristic  energy  the  organi- 
zation put  forward  a  programme  for  the  readjust- 
ment of  labor  to  war  conditions.    "This  is  labor's 
war"  declared  the  manifesto  issued  by  the  Feder- 
ation.    "  It  must  be  won  by  labor,  and  every  stage 
in  the  fighting  and  the  final  victory  must  be  made  to 
count  for  humanity."     These  aims  were  embodied 
in  constructive  suggestions  adopted  by  the  Council 
of  National  Defense  appointed  by  President  Wil- 
son.    This  programme  was  in  a  large  measure  the 
work  of  Gompers,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil.    The  following  outline  shows  the  comprehen- 
sive nature  of  the  view  which  the  laborer  took   of 


it 


|.'V 


FEDERATION  lOS 

the  relation  between  task  and  the  War.    The  plan 
embraced : 

1.  Means  for  furnishing  an  adequate  supply  of 
labor  to  war  industries. 

This  included  t  (a)  A  system  of  labor  exchanges, 
(b)  The  training  of  workers,  (c)  Agencies  for 
determining  priorities  in  labor  dema '  is.  (d) 
Agencies  for  the  dilution  of  skilled  labor. 

2.  Machinery  for  adjusting  disputes  between 
capital  and  labor,  without  stoppage  of  work. 

3.  Machinery  for  safeguarding  conditions  of  la- 
bor, including  industrial  hygiene,  safety  appliances, 
etc. 

4.  Machinery  for  safeguarding  conditions  of 
living,  including  housing,  etc. 

5.  Machinery  for  gathering  data  necessary  for 
effective  executive  action. 

6.  Machinery  for  developin::^  sound  public  senti- 
ment and  an  excht  nge  of  information  between  the 
various  departments  of  labor  administration,  the 
numerous  industrial  plants,  and  the  public,  so  as 
to  facilitate  the  carrying  out  of  a  national  labor 
programme. 

Having  thus  first  laid  the  foundations  of  a  na- 
tional labor  policy  and  having,  in  the  second  place, 
developed  an  effective  means  of  Americanizing,  a? 


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104  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

far  as  possible,  the  various  labor  groups,  the  Fed- 
eration took  another  step.    As  a  third  essential 
element    .,  uniting  labor  to  help  to  win  the  war, 
it  t-       u  its  attention  to  the  inter-allied  solidar- 
ity of  workingmen.     In  the  late  summer  and  au- 
tumn of  1917,  Gompers  headed  an  American  labor 
mission  to  Europe  and  visited  England,  Belgium, 
France,  and  Italy.    His  frequent  public  utterances 
in  numerous  cities  received  particular  attention  in 
the  leading  European  newspapers  and  were  eagerly 
read  in  the  allied  countries.    The  pacifist  group 
of  the  British  Labour  Party  did  not  relish  his  out- 
spokenness on  the  necessity  of  complet  -ly  defeat- 
ing the  Teutons  before  peace  overtures  could  be 
made.     On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  ultracon- 
servative  papers  misconstrued  his  sentiments  on 
the  terms  which  should  be  exacted  from  the  enemy 
when  victory  was  assured.     This  misunderstand- 
ing led  to  an  acrid  international  newspaper  con- 
troversy, to  which  Gompers  finally  rcpl'd:  "I  uf.- 
tered  no  sentence  or  word  which  by  the  wildest 
imagination  could  be  interpreted  as  advocating 
the  formula  'no  annexations,  and  no  indemnities.' 
On  the  contrary,  I  have  declared,  both  in  the 
United  States  and  in  conferences  and  public  meet- 
ings while  abroad,  that  the  German  forces  must  be 


i^.' 


fi' 


FEDERATION  105 

driven  back  from  the  invaded  territory  before  even 
peace  terms  could  be  discussed,  that  Alsace-Lor- 
raine should  be  returned  to  France,  that  the  'Irre- 
dente*  should  be  returned  tr.  Italy,  and  that  the 
imperialistic  militarist  machine  which  has  so  out- 
raged the  conscience  of  the  world  must  be  made  to 
feel  the  dignation  and  righteous  wrath  of  all 
liberty  and  peace  loving  peoples. "  This  mission 
had  a  deep  effect  in  uniting  the  labor  populatious  of 
the  allied  countries  and  especially  in  cheering  the 
over-wrought  workers  of  Britain  and  France,  and 
it  succeeded  in  laying  the  foundation  for  a  more 
lasting  international  labor  solidarity. 

This  considerable  achievement  was  recognized 
when  the  Peace  Conference  at  Paris  formed  a  Com- 
mission on  International  Labor  Legislation.  Gom- 
pers  was  selected  as  one  of  the  American  represen- 
tatives and  was  chosen  chairman.  WTiile  the  Com- 
mission was  busy  with  its  tasks,  an  international 
labor  conference  "\".s  held  at  Eerne.  Gompers  and 
his  colleagues,  however,  refused  to  attend  this  con- 
ference. They  gave  as  their  reasons  for  this  aloof- 
ness the  facts  that  delegates  from  the  Central  pow- 
ers, with  whom  the  United  States  v'as  still  at  war, 
were  in  attendance;  that  the  meeting  was  held  "for 
the  purpose  of  arranging  socialist  procedure  of  an 


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106  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

international  character";  and  that  the  convention 
was  irregularly  culled,  for  it  had  been  announced  as 
an  inter-allied conferencebut  had  been  surreptitious- 
ly converted  into  an  international  pacifist  gather- 
ing, conniving  with  German  and  Austrian  socialists. 
Probably  the  most  far-reaching  achievement  of 
Gompers  is  the  by  no  means  inconsiderable  con- 
tribution he  has  made  to  that  portion  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  with  Germany  relating  to  the  interna- 
tional organization  of  labor.     This  is  an  entirely 
new  departure  in  the  history  of  labor,  for  it  at- 
tempts  to   provide   international    machinery   for 
stabilizing  conditions  of  labor  in  the  various  sig- 
natory countries.     On  the  ground  that  "the  well- 
being,  physical  and  moral,  of  the  industrial  wage- 
earners  is  of  supreme  international  importance," 
the  treaty  lays  down  guiding  principles  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  various  countries,  subject  to  such 
changes  as  variations  in  climate,  customs,  and 
economic  conditions  dictate.     These  principles  are 
as  follows:  labor  shall  not  be  regarded  merely  as  a 
commodity  or  an  article  of  commerce;  employers 
and  employees  shall   have  the  right  of  forming 
associations;  a  wage  adequate  to  maintain  a  rea- 
sonable standard  of  living  shall  be  paid;  an  eight- 
hour  day  shall  be  adopted;  a  weekly  day  of  rest 


FEDERATION  107 

shall  be  allowed;  child  labor  shall  be  abolished  and 
provision  shall  bo  made  for  the  education  of  youth; 
men  and  women  shall  receive  etjual  pay  for  equal 
work;  equitable  treatment  shall  be  accorded  to 
all  workers,  including  aliens  resident  in  foreign 
lands;  and  an  ad(  .  uiie  .sy<t<'ii^  of  inspection  shall 
be  provided  in  wl  ch  womeit  si  ould  take  part. 

While  these  inttri,>{<o'i;!l  adjustments  were  tak- 
ing place,  the  American  Federation  began  to  antici- 
pate the  problems  of  the  inevitable  national  labor 
readjustment  after  the  war.  Through  a  committee 
appointed  for  that  purpose,  it  prepared  an  ample 
programme  of  reconstruction  in  which  the  basic 
features  are  the  greater  participation  of  labor  in 
shaping  its  environment,  both  in  the  factory  and  in 
the  community,  the  development  of  coiiperative 
enterprise,  public  ownership  or  regulation  of  pub- 
lic utilities,  strict  supervision  of  corporations,  re- 
striction of  immigration,  and  the  development  of 
public  education.  The  programme  ends  by  de- 
claring that  "the  trade  union  movement  is  unal- 
terably and  emphatically  opposed  ...  to  a  large 
stiinding  army." 

During  the  entin*  period  of  the  war,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  (ioiiipers  fought  the  pacifist  and 
the  socialist  elements  in  the  labor  movement.    At 


.11 


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if 


108  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

the  same  time  he  was  ever  vigilant  in  pushing  for- 
ward the  claims  of  trade  unionism  and  was  always 
beforehand  in  constructive  suggestions.     His  life 
has  spanned  the  period  of  great  industrial  expan- 
sion in  America.     He  has  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  his  Federation  grow  under  his  leadership  it 
first  into  a  national  and  then  into  an  internation- 
al force.     Gompers  is  an  orthodox  trade  unionist  of 
the  British  School.     Bolshevism  is  to  him  a  syn- 
onym for  social  ruin.     He  believes  that  capital 
and  labor  should  cooperate  but  that  capital  should 
cease  to  be  the  predominant  factor  in  the  equation. 
In  order  to  secure  this  balance  he  believes  la- 
bor must  unite  and  fight,  and  to  this  end  he  has 
devoted  himself  t-  the  federation  of  American 
trade  unions  and  to  their  battle.     He  has  stead- 
fastly refused  political  preferment  and  has  de- 
clined many  alluring  offers  to  enter  private  busi- 
ness.    In  action  lie  is  an  opportunist  —  a  shrewd, 
calculating  captain,  whose  knowledge  of  human 
frailties  stands  him  in  good  stead,  and  whose  per- 
sonal  acquaintance  with  hundreds  of  leaders  of 
labor,  of  finance,  and  of  politics,  all  over  the  coun- 
try, has  given  him  an  unusual  opportunity  to  use 
his  influence  for  the  advancement  of  the  cause  of 
labor  in  the  turbulent  field  of  economic  warfare. 


I 


FEDERATION  109 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor  has  been 
forced  by  the  increasing  complexity  of  modern 
industrial  life  to  recede  somewhat  from  its  early 
trade  union  isolation.  This  broadening  point  of 
view  is  shown  first  in  the  recognition  of  the  man  of 
no  trade,  the  unskilled  worker.  For  years  the 
skilled  trades  monopolized  the  Federation  and 
would  not  condescend  to  interest  themselves  in 
their  humble  brethren.  The  whole  mechanism  of 
the  Federation  in  the  earlier  period  revolved 
around  the  organization  of  the  skilled  laborers. 
In  England  the  great  dockers'  strike  of  1880  and  in 
America  the  lurid  flare  of  the  I.  W.  W.  activities 
forced  the  labor  aristocrat  to  abandon  his  pharisaic 
attitude  and  to  take  an  interest  in  the  welfare  of 
the  unskilled.  The  future  will  test  the  stability 
of  the  Federation,  for  it  is  among  the  unskilled 
that  radical  and  revolutionary  movements  find 
their  first  ree-'is. 

A  furthe,  ;e  in  the  internal  policy  of  the 

Federation  h  indicated  by  the  present  tendency 
towards  amalgamating  the  various  allied  trades 
nito  one  union.  For  instance,  the  United  Bro- 
therhood of  Carpenters  and  the  Amalgamated 
Wood  Workers'  .Vssociation,  <'omposed  largely  of 
furniture    makers    and    machine    wood    workers, 


1  i 
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110  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

combined  a  few  years  ago  and  then  proceeded  to 
absorb  the  Wooden  Box  Makers,  and  the  Wood 
Workers  in  the  shipbuilding  industry.     The  gen- 
eral secretary  of  the  new  amalgamation  said  that 
the  organization   looked   "forward  with  pleasur- 
tble  anticipations  to  the  day  when  it  can  truly  be 
said  that  all  men  of  the  wood-working  craft  on  this 
continent  hold  allegiance  to  the  United  Brother- 
hood of  Carpenters  and  Joiners  of  America."     A 
similar  unification  has  taken  i)Iace  in  the  lumber- 
ing industry.    When  the  shingle  weavers  formed  an 
international  union  some  fifteen  years  ago,  they 
limited  the  membership  "to  the  men  employed  in 
skilled  departments  of  the  shingle  trade."    In  1912 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  sanctioned  a 
plan   for   including   in   one   organization    all   the 
workers  in  the  lumber  industry,  both  skilled  and 
unskilled.    This  is  a  far  cry  from  the  minute  trade 
autocracy  taught  by  the  orthodo.x  unionist  thirty 
years  ago. 

Today  the  Federation  of  Labor  is  one  of  the  most 
imposing  organizations  in  the  social  system  of 
America.  It  reaches  the  workers  in  every  trade 
Every  contributor  to  the  physical  necessities  of 
our  materialistic  civilization  has  felt  the  far-reach- 
ing  influence  of  confederated  power.    A  sense  of  its 


FEDERATION  m 

strength  pervades  the  Federation.  Like  a  healthj , 
self-conscious  giant,  it  stalks  apace  among  our 
national  organizations.  Through  its  cautious  yet 
pronounced  policy,  through  its  seeking  after  defi- 
nite results  and  excluding  all  economic  vagaries,  it 
bids  fair  to  overcome  the  disputes  that  disturb  it 
from  within  and  the  onslaughts  of  Socialism  ar  J  of 
Bolshevism  that  threaten  it  from  without. 


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CHAPTER  VI 


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THE    TRADE    UNION 

The  trade  union '  forms  the  foundation  upon  which 
the  whole  edifice  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  is  built.    Like  the  Federation,  each  particu- 
lar  trade  union  has  a  tripartite  structure:  there  is 
first  the  national  body  called  the  Union,  the  Inter- 
national, the  General  Union,  or  the  Grand  I^dge- 
there  is  secondly  the  district  division  or  council,' 
which  is  merely  a  convenient  general  union  in  min- 
iature; and  finally  there  is  the  local  individual 
union,  usually  called  "the  local."    Some  unions 
such  as  the  United  Mine  Workers,  have  a  fourth 
division  or  subdistrict.  but  this  is  not  the  general 
practice. 

The  sovereign  authority  of  a  trade  union  is  its 
general  convention,  a  delegate  body  meeting  at 
stated  times.    Some  unions  meet  annually,  some 

bracmg  labor,  trade,  and  .ndu«trial  unions.  unle«  otherwi^s  .pecificd 

Hi 


TtxE  TRADE  UNION  113 

biennially,  some  triennially,  and  a  few  determine 
by  referendum  when  the  convention  is  to  meet. 
Sometimes  a  long  interval  elapses:  the  granite  cut- 
ters, for  instance,  held  no  convention  between 
1880  and  1912,  and  the  cigar-makers,  after  a  con- 
vention in  1896,  did  not  nieet  for  sixteen  years. 
The  initiative  and  referendum  are,  in  some  of  the 
more  compact  u^^ions,  taking  the  place  of  the  gen- 
eral convention,  while  the  small  executive  council 
insures  promptness  of  administrative  action. 

The  convention  elects  the  general  officers.  Of 
these  the  president  is  the  most  conspicuous,  for  he 
is  the  field  marshal  of  the  forces  and  fills  a  large 
place  in  the  public  eye  when  a  great  strike  is  called. 
It  was  in  this  capacity  that  John  Mitchell  rose  to 
sudden  eminence  during  the  historic  anthracite 
strike  in  1902,  and  George  W.  Perkins  of  the  cigar- 
makers'  union  achieved  his  remarkable  hold  upon 
the  laboring  people.  As  the  duties  of  the  president 
of  a  union  have  increased,  it  has  become  the  custom 
to  elect  numerous  vice-presidents  to  relieve  him. 
Each  of  these  has  certain  specific  functions  to  per- 
form, but  all  remain  the  president's  aides.  One, 
for  instance,  may  be  the  financier,  another  the 
strike  agent,  another  the  organizer,  another  the 
agitator.    With  such  a  group  of  virtual  specialists 


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114  THE  ARMIES  OF  L/BOR 

around  a  chieftain,  a  union  has  the  immense  ad- 
vantage of  centralized   command  and  of  highly 
organized  leadership.      The  tendency,  especially 
among  the  more  conservative  unions,  is  to  reelect 
these  officers  year  after  year.     The  president  of 
the  Carpenters'  Union  held  his  office  for  twenty 
years,  and  John  Mitchell  served  the  miners  as 
president  ten  years.    Under  the  immediate  super- 
vision of  the  president,  an  executive  board  com- 
posed of  all  the  officers  guides  the  destinies  of  the 
union.    When  this  board  is  not  occupied  with  the 
relations  of  the  men  to  their  employers,  it  gives  its 
judicial  consideration  to  the  more  delicate  and 
more  difficult  questions  of  inter-union  comity  and 
of  local  differences. 

The  local  union  is  the  oldest  labor  organization, 
and  a  few  existing  locals  can  trace  their  origin  as 
far  back  as  the  decade  preceding  the  Civil  War. 
Many  more  antedate  the  organization  of  the  Fed- 
eration. Not  a  few  of  these  almost  historic  local 
unions  have  refused  to  surrender  their  complete 
independence  by  affiliating  with  those  of  recent 
origin,  but  they  have  remained  merely  isolated  in- 
dependent locals  with  very  little  general  influence. 
The  vast  majority  of  local  unions  are  members  of 
the  national  trades  union  and  of  the  Federation. 


■;t 


THF  TRADE  UNION  115 

The  local  union  is  the  place  where  the  laborer 
comes  into  direct  personal  contact  with  this  power- 
ful entity  that  has  become  such  a  factor  in  his  daily 
life.  Here  he  can  satisfy  that  longing  for  the  rec- 
ognition of  his  point  of  view  denied  him  in  the 
great  factory  and  here  he  can  meet  men  of  similar 
condition,  on  terms  of  equality,  to  discuss  freely 
and  without  fear  thr  f  opics  that  interest  him  most. 
There  is  an  immen.-  irsychic  potency  in  this  inti- 
mate association  of  lellow  workers,  especially  in 
some  of  the  older  unions  which  have  accumulated 
a  tradition. 

in  the  local  union  that  the  real  life  of  the 
labor  organization  must  be  nourished,  and  the 
statesmanship  of  the  national  leaders  is  directed  to 
maintaining  the  greatest  degree  of  local  autonomy 
consistent  with  the  interests  of  national  homo- 
geneity. The  individual  laborer  thus  finds  himself 
a  member  of  a  group  of  his  fellows  with  whom  he  is 
personally  acquainted,  who  elect  their  own  ofl=icers, 
to  a  large  measure  fix  their  own  dues,  transact  their 
own  routine  business  discipline  their  own  mem- 
bers, and  whenever  possible  make  their  own  terms 
of  employment  with  their  .-mployers.  The  local 
unions  are  obliged  to  pay  their  tithe  into  the  great- 
er treasury,  to  make  stated  reports,  to  appoint  a 


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116  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

certain  roster  of  committees,  and  in  certain  small 
matters  to  conform  to  the  requirements  of  the  na- 
tional union.  On  the  whole,  however,  they  are 
independent  little  democracies  confederated,  with 
others  of  their  kind,  by  means  of  district  and 
national  organizations. 

The  unions  representing  the  diflFerent  trades  vary 
in   structure  and   spirit.     There   is  an  immense 
difference  between  the  temper  of  the  tumultuous 
structural   iron   workers   and  the  contemplative 
cigar-makers,  who  often  hire  one  of  their  number  to 
read  to  them  while  engaged  in  their  work,  the 
favorite  authors  being  in  many  instances  Ruskin 
and  Carlyle.    Some  unions  are  more  successful  than 
others  in  collective  bargaining.    Martin  Fox,  the 
able  leader  of  the  iron  moulders,  signed  one  of  the 
fir  +  trade  agreements  in  America  and  fixed  the 
cr  .liaon  for  his  union;  and  the  shoemakers,  as  well 
as  most  of  the  older  unions  are  fairly  well  accus- 
tomed to  collective  bargaining.    In  matters  of  dis- 
cipline, too,  the  unions  vary.    Printers  and  certain 
of  the  more  skilled  trades  find  it  easier  to  enforce 
their  regulations  than  do  the  longshoremen  and 
unions  composed  of  casual  foreign  laborers.     In 
size  also  the  unions  of  the  different  trades  vary. 
Tn  1910  three  had  a  membership  of  over  100,000 


THE  TRADL  UNION  117 

each.  Of  these  the  United  Mine  Wc  :ers  reached  a 
total  of  370,800,  probably  the  largest  trades  union 
in  the  world.  The  majority  of  the  unions  have  a 
membership  between  1000  and  10,000,  the  average 
for  the  entire  number  being  5000;  but  the  member- 
ship fluctuates  from  year  to  year,  according  to  the 
conditions  of  labor,  and  is  usually  larger  in  seasons 
of  contest.  Fluctuation  in  membership  is  most 
evident  in  the  newer  unions  and  in  the  unskilled 
trades.  The  various  unions  differ  also  in  resources. 
In  some,  especially  those  composed  largely  of  for- 
eigners, the  treasury  is  chronically  empty;  yet  at 
the  other  extreme  the  mine  workers  distributed 
$1,890,000  in  strike  benefits  in  1902  and  had  $750,- 
000  left  when  the  board  of  arbitration  sent  the 
workers  back  into  the  mines. 

The  efforts  of  the  unions  to  adjust  themselves  to 
the  quickly  changing  conditions  of  modern  indus- 
try are  not  always  successful.  Old  trade  lines  are 
constantly  shifting,  creating  the  most  perplexing 
problem  of  inter-union  amity.  Over  two  score 
jurisdictional  controversies  appear  for  settlement 
at  each  annual  convention  of  the  American  Fed- 
eration. The  Association  of  Longshoremen  and 
the  Seamen's  Union,  for  example,  both  claim  juris- 
diction over  employees  in  marine  warehouses.    The 


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118  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

cigar-makers  and  the  stogie-makers  have  also  long 
been  at  swords'  points.    Who  shall  have  control 
over  the  coopers   who   work  in  breweries  -  the 
Brewery  Workers  or  the  Coopers'  Union?    Who 
shall  adjust  the  machinery  in  elevators  -  the  Ma- 
chmi-sts  or  Elevator  Constructors?   Is  the  opera- 
tor of  a  linotype  machine  a  typesetter?    So  plaster- 
ers and  carpenters,  blacksmiths  and  structural  iron 
workers,  printing  pressmen  and  plate  engravers 
hod  carriers  and  cement  workers,  are  at  logger- 
heads; the  electrification  of  a  railway  creates  a 
jurisdictional  problem  between  the  electrical  rail- 
way employees  and  the  locomotive  engineers;  and 
the  marble  workers  and  the  plasterers  quarrel  as  to 
the  settmg  of  imitation  marble.     These  quarrels 
regarding  the  claims  of  rival  unions  reveal  the 
weakness  of  the  Federation  as  an  arbitral  body 
There  is  no  centralized  authority  to  impose  a  stand- 
ard or  principle  which  could  lead  to  the  settlement 
of  such  disputes.    Trade  jealousy  has  overcome  the 
suggestions  of  the  peacemakers  that   either  the 
nature  of  the  toob  used,  or  the  nature  of  the  opera- 
tion or  the  character  of  the  establishment  be  taken 
as  the  basis  of  settlement. 

When  the  Federation  itself  fails  as  a  peacemaker, 
It  cannot  be  expected  that  locals  will  escape  these 


ii 


THE  TRADE  UNION  119 

controversies.     There  are  many  examples,  often 
ludicrous,  of  petty  jealousies  and  trade  ri .alries. 
The  man  who  tried  to  build  a  brick  house,  employ- 
ing union  bricklayers  to  lay  the  brick  and  union 
painters  to  paint  the  brick  walls,  found  to  his  loss 
that  such  painting  was  considered  a  bricklayer's 
job  by  the  bricklayers'  union,  who  charged  a  higher 
wage  than  the  painters  would  have  done.    It  would 
have  relieved  him  to  have  the  two  unions  amalga- 
mate.   Anu  this  in  general  has  become  a  real  way 
out  of  the  difficulty.     For  instance,  a  dispute  be- 
tween the  Steam  and  Hot  Water  Fitters  and  the 
Plumbers  was  settled  by  an  amalgamation  called 
the  United  Association  of  Journeymen  Plumbers, 
Gas   Fitters,  Steam   Fitters,  and  Steam  Fitters' 
Helpers,  which  is  now  affiliated  with  the  Federa- 
tion.  .But  the  International  Association  of  Steam, 
Hot  Water,  and  Power  Pipe  Fitters  and  Helpers 
is  not  affiliated,  and  inter-union  war  results.    The 
older  unions,  however,  have  a  stabilizing  influence 
upon  the  newer,  and  a  genuine  conservatism  such 
as  characterizes  the  British  unions  is  becoming 
more  apparent  as  age  solidifies  custom  and  lends 
TLjpect  to  by-laws  and  constitutions.     But  even 
time  cannot  obviate  the  seismic  effects  of  new  in- 
ventions, and  shifts  in  jurisdictional  matters  are 


IM 


1  ^  II 


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ii 
I 


120  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

always  imminent.  The  dominant  policy  of  the 
trade  union  is  to  keep  its  feet  on  the  earth,  no 
matter  where  its  head  may  be,  to  take  one  step  at 
a  time,  and  not  to  trouble  about  the  future  of 
society.  This  purpose,  which  has  from  the  first 
been  the  prompter  of  union  activity,  was  clearly 
enunciated  in  the  testimony  of  Adolph  Strasser,  a 
converted  socialist,  one  of  the  leading  trade  union- 
ists, and  president  of  the  Cigar-makers'  Union, 
before  a  Senate  Committee  in  1883: 


Chairman : 
Witness: 

Chairman : 
Witness: 

Chairman: 
Witness: 

Chairman: 


You  arc  seeking  to  improve  home  matters 
first? 

Yes  sir,  I  look  first  to  the  trade  I  represent: 
I  look  first  to  cigars,  to  the  interests  of 
men  who  employ  me  to  represent  their 
interests. 

I  was  only  osking  you  in  regard  to  your 
ultimate  ends. 

We  have  no  ultimate  ends.  We  are  going 
on  from  day  to  day.  We  are  fighting  only 
for  immediate  objects  —  objects  that  can 
be  realized  in  a  few  years. 
You  want  something  better  to  eat  and  to 
wear,  and  better  houses  tolive  in? 
Yes,  we  want  to  dress  better  and  to  live 
better,  and  become  better  citizens  gener- 
ally. 

I  see  that  you  are  a  little  sensitive  lest  it 
should  be  thought  that  you  are  a  mere 


:  I' 


Witness: 


THE  TRADE  UNION  ui 

theorizer.  I  do  not  look  upon  you  in  that 
light  at  all. 

Well,  we  say  in  our  constitution  that  we 
are  opposed  to  theorists,  and  I  have  to 
represent  the  organization  here.  We  are 
all  practical  men. 


^r. 


This  remains  substant  ally  the  trade  union  plat- 
form today.  Trade  Umonists  all  aim  to  be  "prac- 
tical men." 

The  trade  union  has  been  the  training  school 
for  the  labor  leader,  that  comparatively  new  and 
increasingly  important  personage  who  is  a  product 
of  modem  industrial  society.    Possessed  of  natural 
aptitudes,  he  usually  passes  by  a  process  of  logical 
evolution,  through  the  important  committees  and 
offices  of  his  local  into  the  wider  sphere  of  the 
national  union,  where  as  president  or  secretary, 
he  assumes  the  leadership  of  his  group.     Circum- 
stances and  conditions  impose  a  heavy  burden 
upon  him,  and  his  tasks  call  for  n  variety  of  gifts. 
Because  some  particular  loader  lacked  tact  or  a 
sense  of  justice  or  some  similar  quality,  many  a 
labor  maneuver  has  failed,  and  mruy  a  labor  organi- 
zation has  suffered  in  the  public  esteem.    No  other 
class  relics  so  much  upon  wise  leadership  as  does 
the  laboring  class.     The  average   wage-earner  is 


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122 


THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 


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ii 


without  experience  in  confronting  a  new  situation 
or  trained  and  superior  minds.  From  his  tasks  he 
has  learned  only  the  routine  of  his  craft.  When 
he  is  faced  with  the  necessity  of  prompt  action, 
he  is  therefore  obliged  to  depend  upon  his  chosen 
captains  for  results. 

In  America  these  leaders  have  risen  from  the 
rank  and  file  of  labor.  Their  education  is  limited. 
The  great  majority  have  only  a  primary  schooling. 
Many  have  supplemented  this  meager  stock  of 
learning  by  rather  wide  but  desultory  reading  and 
by  keen  observation.  A  few  have  read  law,  and 
some  have  attended  night  schools.  But  all  have 
graduated  from  the  University  of  Life.  Many  of 
them  have  passed  through  the  bitt'  st  poverty, 
and  all  have  been  raised  among  toi'  -.nd  from 
infancy  have  learned  to  sympathize  w  h  >  e  toiler's 
point  of  view. '  They  are  therefore  by  t.  .ning  and 
origin  distinctly  leaders  of  a  class,  with  the  outlook 

«  A  well-known  labor  leader  once  said  to  the  writer:  "  Xo 
matter  how  much  you  go  around  amon^  laboring  people,  you  will 
never  really  understand  us  unless  you  were  brought  up  among  us. 
There  is  a  real  gulf  between  your  way  of  looking  on  life  and  ours. 
You  can  be  only  an  investigator  or  an  intellectual  sympathizer 
with  my  people.  But  you  cannot  really  understand  our  view- 
point." Whatever  of  misconception  there  may  be  in  this  attitude, 
it  nevertheless  marks  the  actual  temper  of  the  average  wage- 
earner.  i:i  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  America  many  employers  have 
risen  from  the  ranki  of  labor. 


k^ 


' » 


1 1 


THE  TRADE  UNION  12S 

upon  life,  the  prejudices,  the  limitations,  and  the 
fervent  hopes  of  that  class. 

In  a  very  real  sense  tlie  American  labor  leader  is 
the  counterpart  of  the  American  business  man  — 
intensively  trained,  averse  to  vagaries,  knowing 
thoroughly  one  thing  and  only  one  thing,  and 
caring  very  little  for  anything  else. 

This  comparative  restriction  of  outlook  marks 
a  sharp  distinction  between  American  and  British 
labor  leaders.  In  Britain  such  leadership  is  a  dis- 
tinct career  for  which  a  young  man  prepares  him- 
self. He  is  usually  fairly  well  educated,  for  not 
frequently  he  started  out  to  study  for  the  law  or  the 
ministry  and  was  sidetracked  by  hard  necessity. 
A  few  have  come  into  the  field  from  journalism. 
As  a  result,  the  British  labor  leader  has  a  certain 
veneer  of  learning  and  puts  on  a  more  impressive 
front  than  the  American.  For  example,  Britain 
has  produced  Ramsey  MacDonald,  who  writes 
books  and  makes  speeches  with  a  rare  grace:  John 
Burns,  who  quotes  Shakespeare  or  recites  history 
with  wonderful  fluency :  Keir  Hardie,  a  miner  from 
the  ranks,  who  was  possessed  of  a  charming  poetic 
fancy:  Philip  Snowden.  who  displays  the  spiritual 
qualities  of  a  seer;  and  John  Henderson,  who  com- 
bines philosophical  power  with  skill  in  dialectics. 


^  I 


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124  THE  AR^flES  OP  LABOR 

On  the  other  hand,  the  rank  and  file  of  American 
labor  IS  more  intelligent  and  alert  than  that  of 
British  labor,  and  the  American  labor  leader 
possesses  a  greater  capacity  for  intensive  growth 
and  is  perhaps  a  better  specialist  at  rough  and 
tumble  fighting  and  bargaining  than  his  British 
colleague. ' 

In  a  very  real  sense  every  trade  union  is  typi- 
fied  by  some  aggressive  personality.    The  Granite 
Cutters'  National  Union  was  brought  into  active 
bemg  in  1877  largely  through  the  instrumentality 
of  James  Duncan,  a  rugged  fighter  who.  having 
federated  the  locals,  set  out  to  establish  an  eight- 
hour  day  through  collective  bargaining  and  to  set- 
tle disputes  by  arbitration.    He  succeeded  in  form- 
ing a  well-disciplined  force  out  of  the  members  of 
his  craft,  and  even  the  employers  did  not  escape  the 
touch  of  his  rod. 

The  Glassblowers'  Union  was  saved  from  dis- 
ruption by  Dennis  Hayes,  who,  as  president  of  the 
national  union,  reorganized  the  entire  force  in  the 
years  1896-99.  unionized  a  dozen  of  the  largest 

■  The  writer  recaJIs  spending  a  day  in  one  of  the  Mid.and  manu- 
facturing town,  with  the  secretary  of  «  local  coOperat  >e  so""; 
a  man  who  was  stooped  in  Bergson',  philosophy  and  ta IkeTon 

a  would  be  difficult  to  duplicate  this  experience  in  America. 


(; 


THE  TRADE  UNION  125 

glass  producing  plants  in  the  United  States  and 
succeeded  in  raising  the  wages  fifteen  per  cent. 
He  introduced  methods  of  arbitration  .ind  col- 
lective agreements  and  estiblished  a  successful 
system  of  insurance. 

James  O'Connell,  the  president  of  the  Inter- 
national Association  of  Machinists,  led  his  organi- 
zation safely  through  the  panic  of  1893,  reorganized 
it  upon  a  broader  basis,  and  introduced  sick  bene- 
fits. In  1901  after  a  long  and  wearisome  dickering 
with  the  National  Metal  Trades  Association,  a 
shorter  day  was  agreed  upon,  but,  as  the  employers 
would  not  agree  to  a  ten-hour  wage  for  a  nine-hour 
day,  O'Connell  led  his  men  out  on  a  general  strike 
and  won. 

Thomas  Kidd,  secretary  of  the  Wood- Workers* 
International  Union,  was  largely  responsible  for  the 
agreement  made  with  the  manufacturers  in  1897 
for  the  establishment  of  a  minimum  wage  of  fifteen 
cents  an  hour  for  a  ten-hour  day,  a  considerable 
advance  over  the  average  wage  paid  up  to  that 
time.  Kidd  was  the  object  of  severe  attacks  in 
various  localities,  and  in  Oshkosh,  Wisconsin, 
where  labor  riots  took  place  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  Union  demands,  he  was  arrested  for  conspiracy 
but  acquitted  by  the  trial  jury. 


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126  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

When  the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron  and 
Steel  Workers  lost  their  strike  at  Homestead.  Penn- 
sylvama.  in  1892,  the  union  was  thought  to  be 
dead.  It  was  quietly  regalvanized  into  activity 
however,  by  Theodore  SchaflFer,  who  has  displayed 
adroitness  in  managing  its  affairs  in  the  face  of 
tremendous  opposition  from  the  great  steel  manu- 
facturers who  refuse  to  permit  their  ehops  to  be 
unionized. 

The  International  Typographical  Union,  com- 
posed of  an  unusually  intelligent  body  of  men.  owes 
Its  smgular  success  in  collective  contracting  largely 
to  James  M.  Lynch,  its  national  president.  The 
great  newspapers  did  not  give  in  to  the  demands  of 
the  union  without  a  series  of  struggles  in  which 
Lynch  manipulated  his  forces  with  skill  and  tact 
Today  this  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  unions  in 
the  country. 

Entirely  different  was  the  material  out  of  which 
D.  J.  Keefe  formed  his  Union  of  Longshoremen, 
Manne  and  Transport  Workers.  His  was  a  mass  of 
unskilled  workers,  composed  of  many  nationalities 
accustomed  to  rough  conditions,  and  not  easily  led. 
Keefe.  as  president  of  their  International  Union 
has  had  more  difficulty  in  restraining  his  men  and 
in  teaching  them  the  obligations  of  a  contract  than 


THE  TRADE  UNION  127 

any  other  leader.  At  least  on  one  occasion  he 
employed  non-union  men  to  carry  out  the  agree- 
ment which  his  recalcitrant  following  had  made 
and  broken. 

The  evolution  of  an  American  labor  leader  is 
shown  at  its  best  in  the  career  of  John  Mitchell, 
easily  the  most  influential  trade  unionist  of  this 
generation.  He  was  born  on  February  4,  1870,  on 
an  Illinois  farm,  but  at  two  years  of  age  he  lost  his 
mother  and  at  four  his  father.  With  other  lads  of 
his  neighborhood  he  shared  the  meager  privileges 
of  the  school  terms  that  did  not  interfere  with 
farm  work.  At  thirteen  he  was  in  the  coal  mines  in 
Braidwood,  Illinois,  and  at  sixteen  he  was  the  out- 
er doorkeeper  in  the  local  lodge  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor.  Eager  to  see  the  world,  he  now  began  a 
period  of  wandering,  working  his  way  from  State 
to  State.  So  he  traversed  the  Far  West  and  the 
Southwest,  alert  in  observing  social  conditions  and 
coming  in  contact  with  many  types  of  men.  These 
wanderings  stood  him  in  lieu  of  an  academic  course, 
and  when  he  returned  to  the  coal  fields  of  Illinois 
he  was  ready  to  settle  down.  From  his  Irish  par- 
entage he  inherited  a  genial  personality  and  a 
gift  of  speech.  These  traits,  combined  with  his 
continual  reading  on  economic  and  sociological 


14 
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( . 


128  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

subjects,  soon  lifted  him  into  local  leadership. 


He 


became  president  of  the  village  school  board  and  of 
the  local  lodge  of  the  Knights  of  Labor.    He  joined 
the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America  upon  its  or- 
ganization  in  1890.    He  rose  rapidly  in  its  ranks, 
was  a  delegate  to  the  district  and  sub-district  con- 
ventions, secretary-treasurer  of  the  Illinois  district, 
chairman   of  the  Illinois   legislative  committee, 
member  of  the  executive  board,  and  national  or- 
ganizer.    In  January,  1898,  he  was  elected  national 
vice-president,  and  in  the  following  autumn,  upon 
the  resignation  of  the  president,  ho  became  acting 
president.    The  national  convention  in  1899  chose 
him  as  president,  a  position  which  he  held  for  ten 
years.    He  has  served  as  one  of  the  vice-presidents 
of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  since  1898, 
was  for  some  years  chairman  of  the  Trade  Agreed 
ment  Department  of  the  National  Civic  Federation 
and  has  held  the  position  of  Chairman  of  the  New 
York  State  Industrial  Commission. 

When  he  rose  to  the  leadership  of  the  United 
Mine  Workers,  this  union  had  only  43,000  mem- 
bers, confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  bitumi- 
nous regions  of  the  West. '   Within  the  decade  of  his 

-Less  than  10.000 out  of  140.000 anthracite  miner,  were  members 
or  the  union. 


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IRtafcfH  »ft<t  Samuel    (iompen* 

IpotOgrmph  by   Cnderwood 


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•^    ■.!'!'     .'       '•■OIJJi'-;     •     •■•     '     .f|.!.I/.      llili.l  <!IM   !      .IlKl/.     ili      .HI. 1.1 

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u    I 


THE  TRADE  UNION  129 

presidency  he  brought  virtually  all  the  miners  of 
the  United  States  under  his  leadership.  Wherever 
his  union  went,  there  followed  sooner  or  later  the 
eight-hour  day,  raises  in  wages  of  from  thirteen  to 
twenty -five  per  cent,  periodical  joint  conventions 
with  the  operators  for  settling  wage  scales  and 
other  points  in  dispute,  and  a  spirit  of  prosperity 
that  theretofore  was  unknown  among  the  miners. 

In  unionizing  the  anthracite  miners,  Mitchell 
had  his  historic  fight  with  the  group  of  powerful 
corporations  that  owned  the  mines  and  the  rai'~ 
ways  which  fed  them.  This  great  strike,  one  of 
the  most  significant  in  our  history,  attracted  uni- 
versal attention  because  of  the  issui  -  involved, 
because  a  coal  shortage  threatened  many  Eastern 
cities,  and  because  of  the  direct  intervention  of 
President  Roosevelt.  The  central  figure  of  this 
gigantic  struggle  was  the  miners'  young  leader, 
barely  thirty  years  old,  with  the  features  of  a  schol- 
ar and  the  demeanor  of  an  ascetic,  marshaling  his 
forces  with  the  strategic  skill  of  a  veteran  general. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  strike  Mitchell,  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Union,  announced  that  the  miners  were 
eager  to  submit  all  their  grievances  to  an  impartial 
arbitral  tribunal  and  to  abide  by  its  decisions. 
The  ruthless  and  prompt  refusal  of  the  mine  owners 


-)     •' 


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«*■ 


Ah 


I: 


I J 


\      1 


150  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

to  consider  this  proposal  reacted  powerfully  in  the 
strikers'  favor  among  the  pubhc.  As  the  long  weeks 
of  the  struggle  wore  on,  increasing  daily  in  bitter- 
ness, multiplying  the  apprehension  of  the  strikers 
and  the  restiveness  of  the  coal  consumers.  Mitch- 
ell bore  the  increasing  strain  with  his  customary 
calmness  and  self-control. 

After  the  parties  had  been  deadlocked  for  many 
weeks.  President  Roosevelt  called  the  mine  owners 
and  the  union  leaders  to  a  conference  in  the  White 
House.  Of  Mitchell's  bearing,  the  President  after- 
wards remarked:  "There  was  only  one  man  in  the 
room  who  behaved  like  a  gentleman,  and  that  man 
was  not  I." 

The  Board  of  Arbitration  eventually  laid  the 
blame  on  both  sides  but  gave  the  miners  the  bulk 
of  their  demands.  The  public  regarded  the  victory 
as  a  Mitchell  victory,  and  the  unions  adored  the 
leader  who  had  won  their  first  strike  in  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  and  who  had  won  universal  confidence 
by  his  ability  and  demeanor  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  harassing  tensions  of  a  class  war.' 

•  Mitchell  w..  croas-ex.raine,!  for  three  d.y,  when  he  w..  tei 

wZVt".  ''-,-^""'-"''-  <••>-■  -Strike  <Ln.i».':  tZ 
weapon  whuh  cr.ft.  prejudice.  «n.l  .kill  coul.j  m.r.h.l  ^g.Jt 
h.m  fa.le,l  t„  ruffle  hi,  temper  or  to  le.d  him  into  d.mS 
adniiMion*  or  fontr»diclion«.  "•™««Jng 


THE  TRADE  UNION  181 

John  Mitchell's  powerful  hold  upon  public  opin- 
ion today  is  not  alone  due  to  his  superior  intelli- 
gence, his  self-possession,  his  business  skill,  nor  his 
Irish  gift  of  human  accommodation,  but  to  the 
greater  facts  that  he  was  always  aware  of  the  grave 
responsibilities  of  leadership,  that  he  realized  the 
stern  obligation  of  a  business  contract,  and  that  he 
always  followed  the  trade  union  policy  of  asking 
only  for  that  which  was  attainable.  Soon  after  the 
Anthracite  strike  he  wrote: 

I  am  opposed  to  strikes  as  I  am  opposed  to  war.  As 
yet,  however,  the  world  with  all  its  progress  has  not 
made  war  impossible:  neither,  I  fear,  considerinK  the 
nature  of  men  and  their  institutions,  will  the  strike 
entirely  disappear  for  years  to  come.  .  .  . 

This  strike  has  taught  both  capital  and  labor  that 
they  owe  certain  obligations  to  society  and  that  their 
obligations  must  be  discharge  i  in  good  faith.  If  both 
are  fair  and  conciliatory,  if  both  recognize  the  moral 
restraint  of  the  state  of  society  by  which  the>  are  sur- 
rounded, there  need  be  few  strikes.  They  can,  and  it 
is  better  that  they  should,  settle  their  differences 
between  themselves.  .  .  . 

Since  labor  organizations  are  here,  and  here  to  stay, 
the  managers  of  employing  corporations  must  choose 
what  they  are  to  do  with  them.  They  may  have  the 
union  as  a  present,  active,  and  unrecognized  force, 
possessing  influence  for  good  or  evil,  but  without 
direct  responubiiity;  or  they  may  deal  with  it,  give  it 


«*  1 
Hi 


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I' 


132 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


responsibility  as  well  as  power,  define  and  regulate 
that  power,  and  make  the  union  an  auxiliary  in  the 
promotion  of  stability  and  discipline  and  the  amicable 
adjustment  of  all  local  disputes. 


vL 

I 


<i 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE   RAILWAY   BROTHERHOODS 


I: 


The  solidarity  and  statesmanship  of  the  trade  un- 
ions reached  perfection  in  the  railway  "Brother- 
hoods." Of  these  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive 
Engineers'  is  the  oldest  and  most  powerful.  It 
grew  out  of  the  union  of  several  early  associations; 
one  of  these  was  the  National  Protective  Associa- 
tion formed  after  the  great  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
strike  in  1854;  another  was  the  Brotherhood  of  the 
Footboard,  organized  in  Detroit  after  the  bitter 
strike  on  the  Michigan  Central  in  1862.  Though 
bom  thus  of  industrial  strife,  this  railroad  union 
has  nevertheless  developed  a  poise  and  a  conserv- 
atism which  have  been  its  greatest  assets  in  the 


1  i 


M 


'>.! 


'  Fp  to  this  time  the  Rrutherhooda  have  not  affiliated  with  the 
Knight!  of  Labor  nor  with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 
After  the  passage  of  the  eight-hour  law  by  Congresi  in  I»lfl,  defi- 
nite steps  were  taken  towards  iifTiliating  the  Railway  Rrotherhoodi 
with  the  Federation,  hikI  ut  itn  ariuuul  conventioa  in  1818  the 
Federation  voted  to  grant  them  a  charter. 


il 


m 


'    I 


134  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

numerous  controversies  engaging  its  energies.  No 
other  union  has  had  a  more  continuous  and  hard- 
headed  leadership,  and  no  other  has  won  more 
umversal  respect  both  from  the  pubhc  and  from 
the  employer. 

This  higli  position  is  largely  due,  no  doubt,  to  the 
fact  that  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engineers 
IS  composed  of  a  very  select  and  intelligent  class  of 
men.    Every  engineer  must  first  serve  an  appren- 
ticeship  as  a  fireman,  which  usually  lasts  from  four 
to  twelve  years.     Very  few  are  advanced  to  the 
rank  of  engineer  in  less  than  four  years.    The  fire- 
men themselves  are  selected  men  who  must  pass 
several  physical  examinations  and  then  submit  to 
the  test  of  a.  arduous  an  apprenticeship  as  modem 
mdustrialism  affords.    In  the  course  of  an  eight-  to 
twelve-hour  run  firemen  must  shovel  from  fifteen 
to  twenty-five  tons  of  coal  into  the  blazing  fire  box 
of  a  locomotive.     I„  winter  they  are  constantly 
subjected  to  hot  blasts  from  the  furnace  and  freez- 
mg  drafts  from   the  wind.    Records  show  that 
out  of  every  hundred  who  begin  as  firemen  only 
seventeen   become  engineers  and  of  these  only 
SIX  ever  become  passenger  engineers.     The  mere 
strain  on  the  eyes  caused  by  looking  into  the  coal 
Waze  eliminates  17  per  cent.   Those  who  eventuPlly 


!l 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       135 

become  engineers  are  therefore  a  select  group  as  far 
as  physique  is  concerned. 

The  constant  dangers  accompanying  their  daily 
work  require  railroad  engineers  to  be  no  less  de- 
pendable from  the  moral  point  of  view.  The  his- 
tory of  railroading  is  as  replete  with  heroism  as  is 
the  story  of  any  war.  A  coward  cannot  long  sur- 
vive at  the  throttle.  The  process  of  natural  selec- 
tion which  the  daily  labor  of  an  engineer  involves 
the  Brotherhood  has  supplemented  by  most  rigid 
moral  tests.  The  character  of  every  applicant  for 
membership  is  thoroughly  scrutinized  and  must  be 
vouched  for  by  three  members.  He  must  demon- 
strate his  skill  and  prove  his  character  by  a  year's 
probation  before  his  application  is  finally  voted 
upon.  Once  within  the  fold,  the  rules  governing 
his  conduct  are  inexorable.  If  he  shuns  his  finan- 
cial obligations  or  is  guilty  of  a  moral  lapse,  he  is 
summarily  expelled.  In  1909,  thirty-six  members 
were  expelled  for  "  unbecoming  conduct. "  Drunk- 
ards are  particularly  dangerous  in  railroading. 
When  the  order  was  only  five  years  old  and  sfill 
struggling  for  its  life,  it  nevertheless  expelled  17!^ 
members  for  drunkenness.  In  proven  cases  of  this 
sort  the  railway  authorities  are  notified,  the  offend- 
ing engineer  is  dismissed  from  the  service,  and  the 


i 


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11 


136  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

shame  of  these  culprits  is  published  to  the  world  in 
the  Locomotive  Engineers'  Journal,  which  reaches 
every  member  of  the  order.  There  is  probably  no 
other  club  or  professional  organization  so  exact- 
ing in  its  demands  that  its  members  be  self-re- 
specting, faithful,  law-abiding,  and  capable;  and 
surely  no  other  is  so  summary  and  far-reaching 
in  its  punishments. 

Today  ninety  per  cent  of  all  the  locomotive  en- 
gineers in  the  United  States  and  Canada  belong  to 
this  union.    But  the  Brotherhood  early  learned  the 
lesson  of  exclusion.    In  1864  after  very  annoying 
experiences  with  firemen  and  other  railway  em- 
ployees on  the  Pittsburgh,  Fort  Wayne  and  Chi- 
cago Railroad,  it  amended  its  constitution  and  ex- 
cluded firemen  and  machinists  from  the  order. 
This  exclusive  policy,  however,  is  based  upon  the 
stern  requirements  of  professional  excellence  and 
is  not  displayed  towards  engineers  who  are  not 
members  of  the  Brotherhood.   Towards  them  there 
is  displayed  the  greatest  toleration  and  none  of 
the  narrow  spirit  of  the  "closed  shop."    The  non- 
union engineer  is  not  only  tolerated  but  is  even 
on  occasion  made  the  beneficiary  of  the  activities 
of  the  union.     He  shares,  for  example,  in  the  rise 
of  wages  and  readjustment  of  runs.    There  are 


THE  RAILW.1Y  BROTHERHOODS       137 


even  cases  on  record  where  the  railroad  unions 
have  taken  up  a  specific  grievance  between  a  non- 
union man  and  his  employer  and  have  attempted 
a  readjustment. 

From  the  inception  of  the  Brotherhood,  the 
policy  of  the  order  towards  the  employing  railroad 
company  has  been  one  of  business  and  not  of  senti- 
ment. The  Brotherhood  has  held  that  the  relation 
between  the  employer  and  employee  concerning 
wages,  hours,  conditions  of  labor,  and  settlement  of 
difficulties  should  be  on  the  basis  of  a  written  con- 
tract; that  the  engineer  as  an  individual  was  at  a 
manifest  disadvantage  in  making  such  a  contract 
with  a  railway  company;  that  he  therefore  had  a 
right  to  join  with  his  fellow  engineers  in  pressing 
his  demands  and  therefore  had  the  right  to  a  col- 
lective contract.  Though  for  over  a  decade  the 
railways  fought  stubbornly  against  this  policy,  in 
the  end  every  important  railroad  of  this  country 
and  Canada  gave  way.  It  is  doubtful,  indeed,  if 
any  of  them  would  today  be  willing  to  go  back  to 
the  old  method  of  individual  bargaining,  for  the 
Brotherhood  has  insisted  upon  the  inviolability  of 
a  contract  once  entered  into.  It  has  consistently 
held  that  "a  bargain  is  a  bargain,  even  if  it  is  a  poor 
bargain."     Members  who  violate  an  agreement 


i^  -^ 


4 


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1: 


'  '1 


138  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

are  expelled,  and  any  local  lodge  which  is  guilty 
of  such  an  o£Pense  has  its  charter  revoked. ' 

Once  the  practice  of  collective  contract  was 
fixed,  it  naturally  followed  that  some  mechanism 
for  adjusting  differences  would  be  devised.  The 
Brotherhood  and  the  various  roads  now  maintain 
a  general  board  of  adjustment  for  each  railway 
system.  The  Brotherhood  is  strict  in  insisting  that 
the  action  of  this  board  is  binding  on  all  its  mem- 
bers. This  method  of  bargaining  and  of  settling 
disputes  has  been  so  successful  that  since  1888  the 
Brotherhood  has  not  engaged  in  an  important 
strike.  There  have  been  minor  disturbances,  it  is 
true,  and  several  nation-wide  threats,  but  no  seri- 
ous strikes  inaugurated  by  the  engineers.  This 
great  achievement  of  the  Brotherhood  could  not 
have  been  possible  without  keen  ability  in  the 
leadc  s  and  splendid  solidarity  among  the  men. 

The  individual  is  carefully  looked  after  by  the 
Brotherhood.  The  Locomotive  Engineers'  Mutual 
Life  and  Accident  Insurance  Association  is  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  Brotherhood,  though  it  main- 
tains a  separate  legal  existence  in  order  to  comply 

■  In  1905  in  New  York  City  39S  members  were  expelled  and 
their  charter  was  revoked  for  violation  of  their  contract  of  em- 
ployment by  taking  part  in  a  sympathetic  strike  of  the  subway 
and  elevated  roads. 


Mi^k 


-I 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       139 

with  the  statutory  requirements  of  many  States. ' 
Every  member  must  carry  an  insurance  policy  in 
this  Association  for  not  less  than  $1500,  though 
he  cannot  take  more  than  $4500.  The  policy  is  car- 
ried by  the  order  if  the  engineer  becomes  sick  or 
is  otherwise  disabled,  but  if  he  fails  to  pay  assess- 
ments when  he  is  in  full  health,  he  gives  grounds 
for  expulsion.  There  is  a  pension  roll  of  three  hun- 
dred disabled  engineers,  each  of  whom  receives  $25 
a  month;  and  the  four  railroad  brotherhoods  to- 
gether maintain  a  Home  for  Disabled  Railroad 
Men  at  Highland  Park,  Illinois. 

The  technical  side  of  engine  driving  is  empha- 
sized by  the  Locomotive  Engineers'  Journal,  which 
goes  to  every  member,  and  in  discussions  in  the 
stated  meetings  of  the  Brotherhood.  Intellectual 
and  social  interests  are  maintained  also  by  lec- 
ture courses,  study  clubs,  and  women's  auxiliaries. 
Attendance  upon  the  lodge  meetings  has  been 
made  compulsory  with  the  intention  of  insuring 
the  order  from  falling  prey  to  a  designing  minority 

« The  following  figures  show  the  status  of  the  Insurance  Asso- 
ciation in  1918.  The  total  amount  of  life  insurance  in  force  was 
1161,205,500.00.  The  toUl  amount  of  claims  paid  from  1868  to 
1918  was  $41,085,l«S.04.  The  claims  paid  in  1918  amounted  to 
|S,014,^40.litf.  The  total  amount  of  indemnity  insurance  in  force 
in  1918  was  $18,486,397.50.  The  total  claims  paid  up  to  1918 
were  »1,6«4,5S7.61;  and  during  1918.  $«41,780.08. 


'■4 


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P 


140  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

—  a  condition  which  has  proved  the  caus.  .  :  the 
downfall  of  more  than  one  labor  union. 

The  Brotherhood  of  Engineers  is  virtually  a  large 
and  prosperous  business  concern.  Its  management 
has  been  enterprising  and  provident;  its  treasury 
is  full;  its  insurance  policies  aggregate  many  mil- 
lions; it  owns  a  modern  skyscraper  in  Cleveland 
which  cost  $1,250,000  and  which  yields  a  substantial 
revenue  besides  housing  the  Brotherhood  offices. 

The  engineers  have,  indeed,  succeeded  in  form- 
ing a  real  Brotherhood  —  a  "feudal"  brotherhood 
an  opposing  lawyer  once  called  them  —  reestab- 
lishing the  medieval  guild-paternalism  so  that  each 
member  is  responsible  for  every  other  and  all  are 
responsible  for  each.  They  therefore  merge  them- 
selves through  self-discipline  into  a  powerful  uni- 
ty for  enforcing  their  demands  and  fulfilling  their 
obligations. 

The  supreme  authority  of  the  Brotherhood  is  the 
Convention,  which  is  composed  of  delegates  from 
the  local  subdivisions.  In  the  interim  between  con- 
ventions, the  authorized  leader  of  the  organization 
is  the  Grand  Chief  Engineer,  whose  decrees  are 
final  unless  reversed  by  the  Convention.  This  au- 
thority places  a  heavy  responsibility  upon  him, 
but  the  Brotherhood  has  been  singularly  fortunate 


:.■' 


J    . 


ih 


\^ 


Ik 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       Ul 

in  its  choice  of  chiefs.    Since  1873  there  have  been 
only  two.    The  first  of  these  was  P.  M.  Arthur,  a 
sturdy  Scot,  born  in  1831  and  brought  to  America  in 
boyhood.    He  learned  the  blackomith  and  machinist 
trades  but  soon  took  to  railroading,  in  which  he 
rose  rapidly  from  the  humblest  place  to  the  position 
of  engineer  on  the  New  York  Central  lines.     He 
became  one  of  the  charter  members  of  the  Brother- 
hood in  1863  and  was  active  in  its  affairs  from 
the  first.    In  1873  the  union  became  involved  in  a 
bitter  dispute  with  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  and 
Arthur,  whose  prompt  and  energetic  action  had 
already  designated  him  as  the  natural  leader  of 
the  Brotherhood,  was  elected  to  the  chieftainship. 
For  thirty  years  he  maintained  his  prestige  and 
became  a  national  figure  in  the  labor  world.    He 
died  suddenly  at  Winnipeg  in  1903  while  speaking 
at  the  dinner  which  closed  the  general  convention 
of  the  Brotherhoo  J. 

When  P.  M.  Arthur  joined  the  engineers'  union, 
the  condition  of  locomotive  engineers  was  unsatis- 
factory. Wages  were  unstable ;  working  conditions 
were  hard  and,  in  the  freight  service,  intolerable. 
For  the  first  decade  of  the  existence  of  the  BrothT- 
hood,  strike  after  strike  took  place  in  the  effort  to 
establish  the  right  of  organizing  and  the  principle 


«  * 


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iii 


Hi  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

of  the  collective  contract.    Arthur  became  head 
of  the  order  at  the  beginning  of  the  period  of  great 
financial  depression  which  followed  the  first  Civil 
War  boom  and  which  for  six  years  threatened 
wages  in  all  trades.     But  Arthur  succeeded,  by 
shrewd  and  careful  bargaining,  in  keeping  the  pay 
of  engineers  from  slipping  down  and  in  some  in- 
stances he  even  advanced  them.    Gradually  strikes 
became  more  and  more  infrequent;  and  the  rail- 
ways learned  to  rely  upon  his  integrity,  and  the 
engineers  to  respect  his  skill  as  a  negotiator.    He 
proved  to  the  first  that  he  was  not  a  labor  agitator 
and  to  the  others  that  he  was  not  a  visionary. 

Year  by  year,  Arthur  accumulated  prestige  and 
power  for  his  union  by  practical  methods  and  by 
being  content  with  a  step  at  a  time.  This  success, 
however,  cost  him  the  enmity  of  virtually  all  the 
other  trades  unionists.  To  them  the  men  of  his 
order  were  aristocrats,  and  he  was  lord  over  the 
aristocrats.  He  is  said  to  have  "had  rare  skill  in 
formulating  reasonable  demands,  and  by  consist- 
ently putting  moderate  demands  strongly  instead 
of  immoderate  demands  weakly  he  kept  the  good 
will  of  railroad  managers,  while  steadily  obtaining 
better  terms  for  his  men."  In  this  practice,  he 
could  not  succeed  without  the  solid  good  will  of  the 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       143 

members  of  the  Broib*  rhood ;  and  this  good  will  was 
possible  onJy  in  an  order  which  insisted  upon  that 
high  standard  of  personal  skill  and  integrity  e.^^^a- 
tial  to  a  first-class  engineer.  Arthur  jxissessed  a 
genial,  fatherly  personality.  His  Scotch  shrewdness 
was  seen  in  his  own  real  estate  investments,  which 
formed  the  foundation  of  an  independent  fortune. 
He  lived  in  an  imposing  stone  mansion  in  Cleve- 
land; he  was  a  director  in  a  leading  bank;  and  he 
identified  himself  with  the  public  affairs  of  the  city. 
When  Chief  Arthur  died,  the  Assistant  Grand 
Chief  Engineer,  A.  B.  Youngson,  who  would  other- 
wise have  assumed  the  leadership  for  the  unexpired 
term,  was  mortally  ill  and  recomn  nded  the  a<]- 
visory  board  to  telegraph  Warren  S.  Stone  an  offer 
of  the  chieftainship.  Thus  events  br  ight  to  the 
fore  a  man  of  marked  executive  talent  who  had 
hitherto  been  unknown  but  who  was  to  play  a  tre- 
mendous r6le  in  later  labor  politics.  Stone  was 
little  known  east  of  the  Mississippi.  He  had  spent 
most  of  his  life  on  the  Rock  Island  system,  had 
visited  the  East  only  once,  and  had  attended  but 
one  meeting  of  the  General  Convention.  In  the 
Vvest,  however,  he  had  a  wide  reputation  for  sound 
sense,  and,  as  chairman  of  the  general  committee 
of  adjustment  of  the  Rock  Island  system,  he  had 


^^1 


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144  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

made  a  deep  impression  on  his  union  and  his  em- 
ployers. Bom  in  Ainsworth,  Iowa,  in  1860,  Stone 
had  received  a  high  school  education  and  had  be- 
gun his  railroading  career  as  fireman  on  the  Rock 
Island  when  he  was  nineteen  years  old.  At  twenty- 
four  he  became  an  engineer.  In  this  capacity  he 
spent  the  following  nineteen  years  on  the  Rock 
Island  road  and  then  accepted  the  chieftainship 
of  the  Brotherhood. 

Stone  followed  the  general  policy  of  his  pred- 
ecessor, and  brought  to  his  tasks  the  energy  of 
youth  and  the  optimism  of  the  West.  When  he 
assumed  ♦he  leadership,  the  cost  of  living  was  rising 
rapidly  and  he  addressed  himself  to  the  adjustment 
of  wages.  He  divided  the  country  into  three  sec- 
tions in  which  conditions  were  similar.  He  began 
in  the  Western  section,  as  he  was  most  familiar 
with  that  field,  and  asked  all  the  general  managers 
of  that  section  to  meet  the  Brotherhoo<l  for  a  wage 
conference.  The  roads  did  not  accept  his  invita- 
tion until  it  was  reinforced  by  the  threat  of  a  West- 
ern strike.  The  conference  was  a  memorable  one. 
For  nearly  three  weeks  the  grand  officers  of  the 
Brotherhood  wrangled  and  wrought  with  the  man- 
agvTH  «»f  the  Western  roads,  who  yielded  ground 
slowly,  a  few  pennies'  increase  at  a  time,  until  a 


< 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       145 

satisfactory  wage  scale  was  reached.  Similarly  the 
Southern  section  was  conquered  by  the  inexorable 
hard  sense  and  perseverance  of  this  new  chieftain. 

The  dispute  with  the  fifty-two  leading  roads  in 
the  so-called  Eastern  District,  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi and  north  of  the  Norfolk  and  Western  Rail- 
road, came  to  a  head  in  1912.  The  engineers  de- 
manded that  their  wages  should  be  *'  standardized  " 
on  a  basis  that  one  hundred  miles  or  less,  or  ten 
hours  or  less,  constitute  a  day's  work;  that  is,  the 
inequalities  among  the  different  roads  should  be 
leveled  and  similar  service  on  the  various  roads 
be  similarly  rewarded.  They  also  asked  that  their 
wages  be  made  equal  to  the  wages  on  the  Western 
roads  and  presented  several  minor  demands.  All 
the  roads  concerned  flatly  refused  to  grant  the  de- 
mand for  a  standardized  and  increased  wage,  on 
the  ground  that  it  would  involve  an  increased  ex- 
penditure of  $7,000,000  a  year.  This  amount  could 
be  made  up  only  by  increased  rates,  which  the  In- 
terstate Commerce  Commission  must  sanction,  or 
by  d.-'creased  dividends,  which  would  bring  a  real 
hardship  to  thousands  of  stockholders. 

The  unions  were  fuliy  prepared  tor  a  strike  which 
would  paralyze  the  essential  trafiic  supplying  ap- 
proximately 38,000,000  j)eople.  Through  the  agency 


?^ 


e  ei 


4 


r    I 


» 


r'i 


146  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

of  Judge  Knapp  of  the  United  States  Commerce 
Court  and  Dr.  Neill  of  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  and  under  the  authority  of  the  Erd- 
man  Act,  there  was  appointed  a  board  of  arbitration 
composed  of  men  whose  distinction  commanded 
national  attention.  P.  H.  Morrissey,  a  former 
chief  of  the  Conductors'  and  Trainmen's  Union, 
was  named  by  the  engineers.  President  Daniel  Wil- 
lard  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  known  for 
his  fair  treatment  of  his  employees,  was  chosen  by 
the  roads.  The  Chief  Justict?  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  and 
the  presiding  judge  of  the  United  States  Commerce 
Court  designated  the  following  members  of  the 
tribunal:  Oscar  S.  Straus,  former  Secretary  of 
Comm«wce  and  Labor,  chairman;  Albert  Shaw, 
editor  of  the  Retnew  c/  Reriewa;  Otto  M.  Eidlitz, 
fwnM»r  pF»>8ident  of  the  Building  Trades  Associa- 
tion Chari*»s  R.  Van  Mi»e,  president  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconwo;  and  Frederick  N.  Judson.  of 
the  St.  Louis  bar. 

.\fter  five  months  of  heanng  testimony  and  de- 
liberation, this  distinguished  board  brought  in  a 
report  that  market!,  it  was  hoped,  a  new  epoch  in 
railway  labor  disputes,  for  it  recognized  the  rights 
of  the  public,  the  great  third  party  to  such  disputes. 


n 


i 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       147 

It  granted  the  principle  of  standardization  and 
minimum  wage  asked  for  by  the  engineers,  but  it 
allowed  an  increase  in  pay  which  was  less  by  one- 
half  than  that  demanded.  In  order  to  prevent  sim- 
ilar discord  in  the  future,  the  board  recommended 
the  establishment  of  Federal  and  vstate  wage  com- 
missions with  functions  pertaining  to  wage  disputes 
analogous  to  those  of  the  public  service  commis- 
sions in  regard  to  rates  and  capitalization.  The 
report  stated  that,  "while  the  railway  employees 
feel  that  they  cannot  surrender  their  right  to  strike, 
if  there  were  a  wage  commission  which  would  se- 
cure them  just  wages  the  necessity  would  no  longer 
exist  for  the  exercise  of  their  power.  It  is  beueved 
that,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  only  solution  —  un- 
less we  are  to  rely  solely  upon  the  restraining  power 
of  public  opinion  —  is  to  qualify  the  principle  of  free 
contract  in  the  railroad  service."' 
While  yielding  to  the  wage  findings  of  the  board. 


'  The  board  recogniied  the  ijreat  obtUclet  in  the  w»y  of  »uch  • 
aolution  but  went  on  to  ■«>■:  "The  8Ut;i{estion,  however,  grows 
out  of  a  profound  conviction  that  the  food  and  clothing  of  our 
p«o|>lc,  the  industries  and  the  general  welfare  of  our  nation,  can- 
not be  permitted  to  depend  upon  tin  policies  and  dictates  of  any 
particular  group  of  men,  whether  employers  or  employees."  And 
this  conviction  has  grown  apare  with  the  years  until  it  stands  to- 
day aa  the  most  potent  check  to  aggrMaion  by  either  trade  unioai 
or  capital. 


i. 

\  II 


s 


'M.as^-',  „  . 


m 


148 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


-t 


'{ 


P.  H.  Morrissey  vigorously  dissented  from  the 
principle  of  the  supremacy  of  public  interest  in 
these  matters.  He  made  clear  his  position  in  an 
able  minority  report:  "I  wish  to  emphasize  my 
dissent  from  that  recommendation  of  the  board 
which  in  its  eflPect  virtually  means  compulsory  ar- 
bitration for  the  railroads  and  their  employees. 
Regardless  of  any  probable  constitutional  prohibi- 
tion which  might  operate  against  its  being  adopted, 
it  is  wholly  impracticable.  The  progress  towards 
the  settlement  of  disputes  between  the  railways 
and  their  employees  without  recourse  to  industrial 
warfare  has  been  marked.  There  is  nothing  under 
present  conditions  to  prevent  its  continuance.  We 
will  never  be  perfect,  but  even  so,  it  will  be  im- 
measurably better  than  it  will  be  under  conditions 
such  as  the  board  proposes." 

The  significance  of  these  words  was  brought  out 
four  years  later  when  the  united  railway  brother- 
hoods made  their  famous  coup  in  Congress.  For 
the  time  being,  however,  the  public  with  its  usual 
self-assurance  thought  the  railway  employee  qaes- 
tion  was  solved,  though  the  findings  were  for  one 
year  only.' 

■  The  award  dated  hark  to  May  1,  1012,  and  was  valid  only  one 
year  fruiii  that  dale. 


pi    I 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       149 

Daniel  Willard  speaking  for  the  railroads,  said: 
"My  acceptance  of  the  award  as  a  whole  does  not 
signify  my  approval  of  all  the  findings  in  detail.  It 
is  intended,  however,  to  indicate  clearly  that,  al- 
though the  award  is  not  such  as  the  railroads  had 
hoped  for,  nor  is  it  such  as  they  felt  would  be  jus- 
tified by  a  full  consideration  of  all  the  facts,  yet 
having  decided  to  submit  this  case  to  arbitra- 
tion and  having  been  given  ample  opportunity  to 
present  the  facts  and  arguments  in  support  of 
their  position,  they  now  accept  without  question 
the  conclusion  which  was  reached  by  the  board 
appointed  to  pass  upon  the  matter  at  issue." 

A  comparison  of  these  statements  shows  how  the 
balance  of  power  had  shifted,  since  the  days  when 
railway  policies  reigned  supreme,  from  the  corpora- 
tion to  the  union.  The  change  was  amply  dem- 
onstrated by  the  next  grand  entrance  of  the  rail- 
way brotherhoods  upon  the  public  stage.  After 
his  victory  in  the  Western  territory.  Chief  Stone 
remarked:  "Most  labor  troubles  are  the  result  of 
one  of  two  things,  misrepresentation  or  misunder- 
standing. Unfortunately,  negotiations  are  some- 
times entrusted  to  men  who  were  never  intended 
by  nature  for  this  mission,  since  they  cannot  dis- 
cuss a  question  without  losing  their  temper.  .  .  . 


»41 


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150  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

It  may  be  laid  down  as  a  fundamental  principle 
without  which  no  labor  organization  can  hope  to 
exist,  that  it  must  carry  out  its  contracts.  No  em- 
ployer can  be  expected  to  live  up  to  a  contract  that 
is  not  regarded  binding  by  the  union." 

The  other  railway  brotherhoods  to  a  consider- 
able degree  follow  the  model  set  by  the  engineers. 
The  Order  of  Railway  Conductors  developed  rap- 
idly from  the  Conductors'  Union  which  was  or- 
ganized by  the  conductors  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  at  Amboy,  Illinois,  in  the  spring  of  1868. 
In  the  following  July  this  union  was  extended  to 
include  all  the  lines  in  the  State.  In  November  of 
the  same  year  a  call  to  conductors  on  all  the  roads 
in  the  United  States  and  the  British  Provinces  was 
issued  to  meet  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  December,  to 
organize  a  general  brotherhood.  Ten  years  later 
the  union  adopted  its  present  name.  It  has  an 
ample  insurance  fund'  based  upon  the  principle 
that  policies  are  not  matured  but  members  arriving 
at  the  age  of  seventy  years  are  relieved  from  further 
payments.  About  thirty  members  are  thus  annu- 
ally retired.  At  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  the  national 
headquarters,   the   order   publishes   The  Railway 

'  In  ir<19  the  totftl  amouut  of  ouUUnding  iniurance  waa  •omc- 
what  over  $90,000,000. 


f« 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       151 

Conductor,  a  journal  which  aims  not  only  at  the 
solidarity  of  the  membership  but  at  increasing  their 
practical  efficiency. 

The  conductors  are  a  conservative  and  carefully 
selected  group  of  men.  Each  must  pass  through  a 
long  term  of  apprenticeship  and  must  possess  abil- 
ity and  personality.  The  order  has  been  carefully 
and  skillfully  led  and  in  recent  years  has  had  but 
few  differences  with  the  railways  which  have  not 
been  amicably  settled.  Edgar  E.  Clark  was  chosen 
president  in  1890  and  served  until  1906,  when  he 
became  a  member  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission.  He  was  bom  in  1856,  received  a 
public  school  education,  and  studied  for  some  time 
in  an  academy  at  Lima,  New  York.  At  the  ago  of 
seventeen,  he  began  railroading  and  served  as  con- 
ductor on  the  Northern  Pacific  and  other  Western 
lines.  He  held  numerous  subordinate  positions  in 
the  Brotherhood  and  in  1889  became  its  vice-presi- 
dent. He  was  appointed  by  President  Roosevelt 
as  a  member  of  the  Anthracite  Coal  Strike  Com- 
mission in  1902  and  is  generally  recognized  as  one 
of  the  most  judicial  heads  in  the  labor  world.  He 
was  succeeded  as  president  of  the  order  by  Austin  B. 
Garretson,  who  was  born  in  \Vinterset,  Iowa,  in  1856. 
He  began  his  railroad  career  at  nineteen  years  of 


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158  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

age,  became  a  conductor  on  the  Burlington  system, 
and  had  a  varied  experience  on  several  Western 
lines,  including  the  Mexican  National  and  Mexican 
Central  railways.  His  rise  in  the  order  was  rapid 
and  in  1889  he  became  vice-president.  One  of  his 
intimate  friends  wrote  that  "in  his  capacity  as 
Vice-President  and  President  of  the  Order  he  has 
written  more  schedules  and  successfully  negotiated 
more  wage  settlements,  including  the  eight-hour 
day  settlement  in  1916,  under  the  method  of  col- 
lective bargaining  than  any  other  labor  leader  on 
the  American  continent." 

Garretson  has  long  served  as  a  member  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  National  Civic  Federa- 
tion and  in  1912  was  appointed  by  President  Wil- 
son a  member  of  the  Federal  Commission  on  Indus- 
trial Relations.  A  man  of  great  energy  and  force 
of  character,  he  has  recently  assumed  a  leading 
place  in  labor  union  activities. 

In  addition  to  the  locomotive  engineers  and  the 
conductors,  the  firemen  also  have  their  union. 
Eleven  firemen  of  the  Erie  Railroad  organized  a 
brotherhood  at  Port  Jervis,  New  York,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1873,  but  it  was  a  fraternal  order  rather  than 
a  trade  union.  In  1877,  the  year  of  the  great  rail- 
way strikes,  it  was  joined  by  the  International 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       158 

Firemen's  Union,  an  organization  without  any  fra- 
ternal or  insurance  features.  In  spite  of  this  amal- 
gamation, however,  the  growth  of  the  Brother- 
hood was  very  slow.  Indeed,  so  unsatisfactory 
was  the  condition  of  affairs  that  in  1879  the  order 
took  an  unusual  step.  "So  bitter  was  the  contin- 
ued opposition  of  railroad  officials  at  this  time," 
relates  the  chronicler  of  the  Brotherhood  (in  some 
sections  of  the  country  it  resulted  in  the  disband- 
ment  of  the  lodges  and  the  depletion  of  member- 
ship) "that  it  was  decided,  in  order  to  remove  the 
cause  of  such  opposition,  to  eliminate  the  protec- 
tive feature  of  the  organization.  With  a  view  to 
this  end  a  resolution  was  adopted  ignoring  strikes." 
This  is  one  of  the  few  recorded  retreats  of  militant 
trade  unionism.  The  treasury  of  the  Brotherhood 
was  so  depleted  that  it  was  obliged  to  call  upon 
local  lodges  for  donations.  By  1885,  however,  the 
order  had  sufficiently  recovered  to  assume  again 
the  functions  of  a  labor  union  in  addition  to  its 
fraternal  and  beneficiary  obligations.  The  days 
of  its  greatest  hardships  were  over,  although  the 
liistoric  strike  on  the  Burlington  lines  that  lasted 
virtually  throughout  the  year  1888  and  the  Pull- 
man strike  in  1894  wrought  a  severe  strain  upon 
its  staying  powers.    In  1906  the  enginemcn  were 


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154  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

incorporated  into  the  order,  and  thenceforth  the 
membership  grew  rapidly.  In  1913  a  joint  agree- 
ment  was  effected  with  the  Brotherhood  of  Loco- 
motive Engineers  whereby  the  two  organizations 
could  work  together  "on  a  labor  union  basis." 
Today  men  operating  electric  engines  or  motor  or 
gas  cars  on  lines  using  electricity  are  eligible  for 
membership,  if  they  are  otherwise  qualified.  This 
arrangement  does  not  interf.rt'  with  unions  alreadj 
established  on  internrhan  lines 

The  leadership  of  this  order  .  f  firemen  has  been 
less  continuous,  though  scarcely  less  conspicuous, 
than  that  of  the  other  brotherhoods.     Before  1886 
the  Grand  Secretary  and  Treasurer  was  invested 
with  greater  authority  than   the  grand  master, 
and  in  this  position  Eugene  V.  Debs,  who  served 
from  1881  to  1892,  and  Frank  W.  Arnold,  who 
served  from  1893  to  1903,  were  potent  in  shaping 
the  policies  of  the  Union.    There  have  been  seven 
grand  masters  and  one  president  (the  name  now 
'sed  to  designate  the  chief  oflicer)  since  1874.    Of 
these  leaders  Frank  P.  Sargent  served  from  1886 
until  1892,  when  he  was  appointed  Commissioner 
General  of  Immigration  by  President  Roosevelt. 
Since  1909,  William  S.  Carter  has  been  president 
of  the  Brotherhood.     Born  in  Texas  in  1859,  he 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       155 

began  railroading  at  nineteen  years  of  age  and 
served  in  turn  as  fireman,  baggageman,  and  en- 
gineer. Before  his  election  to  the  editorship  of  the 
Firemen's  Magazine,  he  held  various  minor  offices 
in  local  lodges.  Since  1894  he  has  served  the 
order  successively  as  editor,  grand  secretary  and 
treasurer,  and  president.  To  his  position  he  has 
brought  an  intitnate  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Union  as  well  as  a  varied  experience  in  practical 
railroading.  Upon  the  entrance  of  America  into 
the  Great  War,  President  Wilson  appointed  him 
Director  of  the  Division  of  Labor  of  the  United 
States  Railway  Administration. 

Of  the  government  and  policy  of  the  firemen's 
union  President  Carter  remarked : 

This  Brotherhood  may  be  compared  to  a  state  ia  a  re- 
public of  railway  unions,  maintaining  almost  complete 
autonomy  in  its  own  affairs  yet  uniting  with  other  rail- 
way brotherhoods  in  matters  of  mutual  concern  and  in 
common  defense.  It  is  true  that  these  railway  brother- 
hoods carry  the  principle  of  home  rule  to  great  lengths 
and  have  acknowledged  no  common  head,  and  by  this 
have  invited  the  criticism  from  those  who  believe  .  .  . 
that  only  in  one  "big"  union  can  railway  employees 
hope  for  improved  working  condition.  .  .  .  That  in 
union  there  is  strength,  no  one  will  deny,  but  in  any 
confederation  of  forces  there  must  be  an  exchange 
of  individual  rights  for  this  collective  power.     There  is 


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THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


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a  point  in  the  combining  of  working  people  in  la- 
bor unions  where  the  loss  of  individual  rights  is  not 
compensated  by  the  increased  power  of  the  masses 
of  workers. 

In  the  cautious  working  out  of  this  principle,  the 
firemen  have  prospered  after  the  manner  of  their 
colleagues  in  the  other  brotherhoods.    Their  mem- 
bership embraces  the  large  majority  of  their  craft. 
From  the  date  of  the  establishment  of  their  bene- 
ficiary fund  to  1918  a  total  of  $21,860,103.00  has 
been  paid  in  death  and  disability  claim  and  in  1918 
the  amount  so  paid  was  $1,538,207.00.    The  Fire- 
men's Magazine,  established  in  1876  and  now  pub- 
lished from  headquarters  in  Cleveland,  is  indicative 
of  the  ambitions  of  the  membership,  for  its  avowed 
aim  is  to  "make  a  specialty  of  educational  matter 
for  locomotive  enginemen  and  other  railroad  em- 
ployees."    An  attempt  was  even  made  in  1908  to 
conduct  a  correspondence  school,  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  editor  and  manager  of  the  magazine, 
but  after  three  years  this  project  was  discontinued 
because  it  could  not  be  made  self-supporting. 

The  youngest  of  the  railway  labor  organizations 
is  the  Brotherhood  of  Trainmen,  organized  in 
September,  1883,  at  Oneonta,  New  York.  Its  early 
years  were  lean  and  filled  with  bickerings  and 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       157 

doubts,  and  it  was  not  until  S.  E.  Wilkinson  was 
elected  grand  master  in  1885  that  it  assumed  an 
important  role  in  labor  organizations.    Wilkinson 
f     was  one  of  those  big,  rough  and  ready  men,  with  a 
natural  aptitude  for  leadership,  who  occasionally 
emerge  from  the  mass.    He  prefer  ed  railroading 
to  schooling  and  spent  more  time  in  the  train  sheds 
of  his  native  town  of  Monroeville,  Ohio,  than  he 
did  at  school.    At  twelve  years  of  age  he  ran  away 
to  join  the  Union  Army,  in  which  he  served  as  an 
orderly  until  the  end  of  the  war.    He  then  followed 
his  natural  bent,  became  a  switchman  and  later  a 
brakeman,  was  a  charter  member  of  the  Brother- 
hood, and,  when  its  outlook  was  least  encourag- 
ing, became  its  Grand  Master.     At  once  under  his 
leadership  the  organization  became  aggressive. 

The  conditions  under  which  trainmen  worked 
were  far  from  satisfactory.  At  that  time,  in  the 
Eastern  field,  the  pay  of  a  brakeman  was  between 
$1.50  and  $2  a  day  in  the  freight  service,  $45  a 
month  in  the  passenger  service,  and  $50  a  month 
for  yard  service.  In  the  Southern  territory,  the 
wages  were  very  much  lower  and  in  th  Western 
about  $5  per  month  higher.  The  runs  in  the  differ- 
ent sections  of  the  country  were  not  equalized; 
there  was  no  limit  to  the  number  of  hours  called  a 


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158  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

day's  work;  overtime  and  preparatory  time  were 
not  counted  in;  and  there  were  many  complaints 
of  arbitrary  treatment  of  trainmen  by  their  supe- 
riors.   Wilkinson  set  to  work  to  remedy  the  wage 
situation  first.    Almost  at  once  he  brought  about 
the  adoption  of  the  principle  of  collective  bargain- 
ing for  trainmen  and  yardmen.    By  1895,  when  he 
relinquished  his  office,  the  majority  of  the  rail- 
ways in  the  United  States  and  Canada  had  work- 
ing agreements  with  their  train  and  yard  service 
men.     Wages  had  been  raised,  twelve  hours  or  less 
and  one  hundred  miles  or  less  becauie  recognized 
as  a  daily  measure  of  service,  and  overtime  was 
paid  extra. 

The  panic  of  1893  hit  the  railway  service  very 
hard.    There  followed  many  strikes  engineered  by 
the  American  Railway  Union,  a  r     .jal  organiza- 
tion which  carried  its  ideas  of  violence  so  far  that  it 
wrecked  not  only  itself  but  brought  the  newer  and 
conservative  Brotherhoods  to  the  verge  of  ruin. 
It  was  during  this  period  of  strain  that,  in  1895, 
P.  H.  Morrissey  was  chosen  Grand  Master  of  the 
Trainmen.    With  a  varied  training  in  railroading, 
m  insurance,  and  in  labor  organizatio:i  work,  Mor- 
rissey was  in  many  ways  the  antithesis  of  his  pred- 
ecessors  who  had.  in  a  powerful  and  brusque  way. 


r  ■ 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       159 

prepared  the  ground  for  his  analytical  and  judi- 
cial leadership.  He  was  unusually  well  informed 
on  all  matters  pertaining  to  railroad  operations, 
earnings,  and  conditions  of  en^ployment,  and  or* 
general  economic  conditions.  This  knowledge, 
together  with  his  forcefulness,  tact,  parliamen- 
tary ability,  and  rare  good  judgment,  soon  made 
him  the  spokesman  of  all  the  railway  Brother- 
hoods in  their  joint  conferences  and  their  leader 
before  the  public.  He  was  not  afraid  to  take 
the  unpopular  side  of  a  cause,  cared  nothing  for 
mere  temporary  advantages,  and  had  the  gift  of 
inspiring  confidence. 

When  Morrissey  assumed  the  leadership  of  the 
Trainmen,  their  order  had  lost  10,000  members  in 
two  years  and  was  about  $200,000  in  debt.  The 
panic  had  produced  unemployment  and  distrust, 
and  the  violent  reprisals  of  the  American  Railway 
Union  had  reaped  a  harvest  of  bitterness  and  dis- 
loyalty. During  his  fifteen  years  of  service  until 
he  retired  in  1909,  Morrissey  saw  his  order  re- 
juvenated and  virtually  reconstructed,  the  work  of 
the  men  standardized  in  the  greater  part  of  the 
country,  slight  increases  of  pay  given  to  the  freight 
and  passenger  men,  and  very  substantial  increases 
granted  to  the  yard  men.    But  his  greatest  service 


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160  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

to  his  order  was  in  thoroughly  establishing  it  in 
the  public  confidence. 

He  was  succeeded  by  William  G.  Lee,  who  had 
served  in  many  subordinate  offices  in  local  lodges 
before  he  had  been  chosen  First  Vice-Grand  Mas- 
ter in  1895.     For  fifteen  years  he  was  a  faithful 
understudy  to  Morrissey  whose  policy  he  has  con- 
tmued  in  a  characteristically  fearless  and  thor- 
oughgoing manner.    When  he  assumed  the  presi- 
dency of  the  order,  he  obtained  a  ten-hour  day  in 
the  Eastern  territory  for  all  train  and  yard  men, 
together  with  a  slight  increase  in  pay  for  all  classes 
fixed  on  the  ten-hour  basis.    The  ten-hour  day  was 
now  adopted  in  Western  territory  where  it  had  not 
already  been  put  into  eflFect.    The  Southern  terri- 
tory, however,  held  out  until  1912,  when  a  general 
advance  on  all  Southern  railroads,  with  one  excep- 
tion, brought  the  freight  and  passenger  men  to  a 
somewhat  higher  level  of  wages  than  existed  in 
other  parts  of  the  country.    In  the  following  year 
the  East  and  the  West  raised  their  wages  so  that 
finally  a  fairly  level  rate  prevailed  throughout  the 
United  States.     In  the  movement  for  the  eight- 
hour  day  which  culminated  in  the  passage  of  the 
Adamson  Law  by  Congress,  Lee  and  his  order  took 
a  prominent  part.    In  1919  the  Trainmen  had 


,L> 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       161 

$253,000,000  insurance  in  force,  and  up  to  that  year 
had  paid  out  $42,500,000  in  claims.    Of  this  latter 
amount  $3,604,000  was  paid  out  in  1918,  one-half 
of  which  was  attributed  to  the  influenza  epidemic. 
Much  of  the  success  and  power  of  the  railroad 
Brotherhoods  is  due  to  the  character  of  their  mem- 
bers as  well  as  to  able  leadership.    The  editor  of 
a  leading  newspaper  has  recently  written:  "The 
impelling  power  behind  every  one  of  these  or- 
ganizations is  the  membership.    I  say  this  without 
detracting  from  the  executive  or  administrative 
abilities  of  the  men  who  have  been  at  the  head  of 
these  organizations,  for  their  influence  has  been 
most  potent  in  carrying  out  the  will  of  their  several 
organizations.    But  whatever  is  done  is  first  de- 
cided upon  by  the  men  and  it  is  then  put  up  to  their 
chief  executive  officers  for  their  direction." 

With  a  membership  of  375,000  uniformly  clean 
and  competent,  so  well  captained  and  so  well  for- 
tified financially  by  insurance  benefit,  and  other 
funds,  it  is  little  wonder  that  the  Brotherhoods 
have  reached  a  permanent  place  in  the  railroad 
mdustry.  Their  progressive  power  can  be  dis- 
cerned in  Federal  legislation  pertaining  to  arbitra- 
tion and  labor  conditions  in  interstate  carriers. 
In  1888  an  act  was  passed  providing  that,  in  cases 


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of  railway  labor  disputes,  the  President  might 
appoint  two  investigators  who,  with  the  United 
States  Commission  of  Labor,  should  form  a  board 
to  mvestigate  the  controversy  and  recommend 
the  best  means  for  adjusting  it."    But  as  they 
were  empowered  to  produce  only  findings  and  not 
to  render  decisions,  the  law  remained  a  dead  letter 
without  having  a  single  case  brought  up  under  it! 
It  was  superseded  in  1898  by  the  Erdman  Act 
which  provided  that  certain  Federal  officials  should 
act  as  mediators  and  that,  in  case  they  failed,  a 
Board  of  Arbitrators  was  to  be  appointed  whose 
word  should  be  binding  for  a  certain  period  of  time 
and  from  whose  decisions  appeal  could  be  taken  to 
the  Federal  courts.    Of  the  hundreds  of  disputes 
which  occurred  during  the  first  eight  years  of  the 
existence  of  this  statute,  only  one  was  brought 
under  the  mechanism  of  the  law.    Federal  arbitra- 
tion was  not  popular.    In  1905,  however,  a  rather 
sudden  change  came  over  the  situation.     Over 
sixty  cases  were  brought  under  the  Erdman  Act 
m  about  eight  years.    In    113  the  Newlands  Law 
was  passed  providing  for  a  p  rmanent  Board  of 
Med'ation  and  Conciliation,  by  which  over  sixty 
controversies  have  been  adjusted. 
The  increase  of  brotherhood  influence  which 


,  I  i 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHE       JODS       163 

such  legislation  represents  was  accompanied  by  a 
consolidation  in  power.  At  first  the  Brotherhoods 
operated  by  railway  systems  or  as  individual  orders. 
Later  on  they  united  into  districts,  all  the  Brother- 
hoods of  a  given  district  cooperating  in  their  de- 
mands. Finally  the  cooperation  of  all  the  Brother- 
hoods in  the  United  States  on  all  the  railway  sys- 
tems was  eflFected.  This  larger  organization  came 
clearly  to  light  in  1912,  when  the  Brotherhoods 
submitted  their  disputes  to  the  board  of  arbitra- 
tion. This  step  was  hailed  by  the  public  as  going  a 
long  way  towards  the  settlement  of  labor  disputes 
by  arbitral  boards. 

The  latest  victory  of  the  Brotherhoods,  however, 
has  shaken  public  confidence  and  has  ushered  in 
a  new  era  of  brotherhood  influence  and  Federal  in- 
terference in  railroad  matters.  In  1916,  the  four 
Brotherhoods  threatened  to  strike.  The  mode  of 
reckoning  pay  —  whether  upon  an  eight-hour  or  a 
longer  day  —  was  the  subject  of  contention.    The 

•  artment  of  Labor,  through  the  Federal  Con- 
tion  Board,  tried  in  vain  to  bring  the  oppo- 
.tents  together.  Even  President  Wilson's  efforts  to 
bring  about  an  agreement  proved  futile.  The 
roads  agreed  to  arbitrate  all  the  points,  allowing 
the  President  to  name  the  arbitrators;  but  the 


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41 
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16*  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

Brotherhoods,  probably  realizing  their  temporary 
strategic  advantage,  refused  point-blank  to  arbi- 
trate. When  the  President  tried  to  persuade  the 
roads  to  yield  the  eight-hour  day,  they  .rnlied  that 
it  was  a  proper  subject  I'or  arbitration. 

Instead  of  standing  firmly  on  the  principle  of 
arbitration,  the  President  chose  to  go  before  Con- 
gress, on  the  afternoon  of  the  29th  of  August,  and 
ask,  first,  for  a  reorganization  of  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission;  second,  for  legal  recogni- 
tion of  the  eight-hour  day  for  interstate  carriers; 
third,  for  power  to  appoint  a  commission  to  ob- 
serve the  operation  of  the  eight-hour  day  for  a 
stated  time;  fourth,  for  reopening  the  question  of 
an  increase  in  freight  rates  to  meet  the  enlarged 
cost  of  operation;  fifth,  for  a  law  ucclaring  railway 
strikes  and  lockouts  unlawful  until  a  public  inves- 
tigation could  be  made;  sixth,  for  authorization  to 
operate  the  roads  in  case  of  military  necessity. 

The  strike  was  planned  to  fall  on  the  expect- 
ant populace,  scurrying  home  from  their  vacai  ons, 
on  the  4th  of  September.  On  the  1st  of  September 
an  eight-hour  bill,  providing  also  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  board  of  observation,  was  rushed  through 
the  House;  on  the  following  day  it  was  hastened 
through  the  staid  Senate;  and  on  the  third  it 


h 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS  165 
received  the  President's  signature.'  The  other 
recommendations  of  the  President  were  made  to 
await  the  pleasure  of  Congress  and  the  unions.  To 
the  suggestion  that  railway  strikes  be  made  unlaw- 
ful until  their  causes  are  disclosed  the  Brotherhoods 
were  absolutely  op  ->osed. 

Many  readjustments  were  involved  in  launch- 
ing the  eight-hour  law,  and  in  March,  1917,  the 
Brotherhoods  again  threatened  to  strike.  The 
President  sent  a  committee,  including  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior  and  the  Secretary  of  Labor,  to 
urge  the  parties  to  come  to  an  agreement.  On  the 
19th  of  March,  the  Supreme  Court  upheld  the 
vaHdity  of  the  law,  and  the  trouble  subsided.  But 
in  the  following  November,  after  the  declaration 
of  war,  clouds  reappeared  on  the  horizon,  and 
again  the  unions  refused  the  Government's  sugges- 
tion of  arbitration.  Under  war  pressure,  however, 
the  Brotherhoods  finally  consented  to  hold  their 
grievance  in  abeyance. 

The  haste  with  which  the  eight-hour  law  was 
enacted,  ar-'  the  omission  of  the  vital  balance  sug- 
gested by  f      President  appeared  to  many  citizens 

■  This  was  on  Sunday.  In  order  to  obviate  any  objection  a  co 
the  legality  of  the  signature  the  President  signed  the  bill  again  on 
the  following  Tuesday,  the  intervening  Monday  being  j.abor  Day. 


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166  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

to  be  a  holdup  of  Congress,  and  the  nearness  of 
the  presidential  election  suggested  that  a  political 
motive  was  not  absent.    The  fact  that  in  the  en- 
suing  presidential  election,  Ohio,  the  home  of  the 
Brotherhoods,  swung  from  the  Republican  to  the 
Democratic  column,  did  not  dispel  this  suspicion 
from  the  public  mind.    Throughout  this  maneuver 
it  was  apparent  that  the  unions  were  very  con- 
fident, but  whether  because  of  a  prearranged  pact, 
or  because  of  a  full  treasury,  or  because  of  a  feeling 
that  the  public  was  with  them,  or  because  of  the 
opposite  belief  tVat  the  public  feared  them,  must 
be  left  to  individual  conjecture.    None  the  less,  the 
public  realized  that  the  principle  of  arbitration  had 
given  way  to  the  principle  of  coercion. 

Soon  after  the  United  States  had  entered  the 
Great  War,  the  Government,  under  authority  of 
an  act  of  Congress,  took  over  the  management  of 
all  the  interstate  railroads,  and  the  nation  was 
launched  upon  a  va«»t  experiment  destined  to  test 
the  capacities  of  all  the  parties  concerned.    The  dis- 
pute over  wages  that  had  been  temporarily  quieted 
by  the  Adamson  Law  broke  out  afresh  until  settled 
by  the  famous  Order  No.  27,  issued  by  William 
G.  McAdoo,  the  Director  General  of  Railroads, 
and  provH "  ^g  a  substantial  readjustment  of  wages 


THE  RAILWAY  BROTHERHOODS       167 

and  hours.  In  the  spring  of  1919  another  large 
wage  increase  was  granted  to  the  men  by  Director 
General  Hines,  who  succeeded  ^icAdoo.  Mean- 
while the  Brotherhoods,  through  tlieir  counsel, 
laid  before  the  congressional  committee  a  plun  for 
the  government  ownership  and  joi-^t  operation  of 
the  roads,  known  as  the  Plumb  plan,  and  the  Amer- 
ican people  are  now  face  to  face  with  an  issue  which 
will  bring  to  a  head  the  paramount  question  of  the 
relation  of  employees  on  government  works  to  the 
Government  and  to  the  general  public. 


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CHAPTER  VIII 


i  I 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE 

There  has  been  an  enormous  expansion  in  the  de- 
mands of  the  unions  since  the  early  days  of  the 
Philadelphia  cordwainers;  yet  these  demands  in- 
volve the  same  fundamental  issues  regarding  hours, 
v.ages,  and  the  closed  shop.    Most  unions,  when 
all  persiflage  is  set  aside,  are  primarily  organized 
for  business  —  the  business  of  looking  after  their 
own  interests.    Their  treasury  is  a  war  chest  rather 
than  an  insurance  fund.    As  a  benevolent  organi- 
zation, the  American  union  is  far  behind  the  British 
union  with  its  highly  developed  Friendly  Societies. 
The  establishmei '  ^{  a  standard  rate  of  wages  is 
perhaps,  as  the  United  States  Industrial  Commis- 
sion reported  in  1901,  "the  primary  object  of  trade 
union  policy."     The  most  promising  method  of 
adjusting  the  wage  contract  is  by  the  collective 
trade  agreement.     The  mechanism  of  the  union 
has  made  possible  collective  bargaining,  and  in 

18g 


/  } 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  169 

numerous  trades  wages  and  other  conditions  are 
now  adjusted  by  this  method.  One  of  the  earliest 
of  these  agreements  was  eflfected  by  the  Iron  Hold- 
ers' Union  in  1891  and  has  been  annually  renewed. 
The  coal  operatives,  too,  for  a  number  of  years 
have  signed  a  wage  agreement  with  their  miners, 
and  the  many  local  difficulties  and  diflFerences  have 
been  ingeniously  and  successfully  met.  The  great 
railroads  have,  likewise,  for  many  years  made  pe- 
riodical contracts  with  the  railway  Brotherhoods. 
The  glove-makers,  cigar-makers,  and,  in  many 
localities,  workers  in  the  building  trades  and  on 
street-railway  systems  have  the  advantage  of  simi- 
lar collective  agreements.  In  1900  the  American 
Newspaper  Publishers  Association  and  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union,  after  many  years 
of  stubborn  fighting  merged  their  numerous  diflFer- 
ences in  a  trade  contract  to  be  in  effect  for  one  year. 
This  experiment  proved  so  successful  that  the 
agreement  has  since  then  been  renewed  for  five- 
year  periods.  In  1915  a  bitter  strike  of  the  gar- 
ment makers  in  New  York  City  was  ended  by  a 
"protocol."  The  principle  of  collective  agreement 
has  become  so  prevalent  that  the  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Labor  believes  that  it  "is  being  ac- 
cepted with  increasing  favor  by  both  employers 


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170  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

and  employees, "  and  John  Mitchell,  speaking  from 
wide  experience  and  an  intimate  knowledge  of  con- 
ditions, says  that  "the  hope  of  future  peace  in 
the  industrial  world  lies  in  the  trade  agreement." 
These  agreements  are  growing  in  complexity,  and 
today  they  embrace  not  only  questions  of  wages 
and  hours  but  also  methods  for  adjusting  all  the 
differences  which  may  arise  between  the  parties  to 
the  bargain. 

The  very  success  of  collective  bargaining  hinges 
upon  the  solidarity  and  integrity  of  the  union  which 
makes  the  bargain.    A  union  capable  of  enforcing 
an  agreement  is  a  necessary  antecedent  condition 
to  such  a  contract.    With  this  fact  in  mind,  one 
can  believe  that  John  Mitchell  was  not  unduly 
sanguine  in  stating  that  "the  tendency  is  toward 
the  growth  of  compulsory  membership  ...  and 
the  time  will  doubtless  come  when  this  compulsion 
will  be  as  general  and  will  be  considered  as  little  of 
a  grievance  as  the  compulsory  attendance  of  chil- 
dren at  school."    There  are  certain  industries  so 
well  centralized,  however,  that  their  coercive  power 
is  greater  than  that  of  the  labor  union,  and  these 
have  maintained  a  consistent  hostility  to  the  closed 
shop.     The  question  of  the  closed  shop  is,  indeed, 
the  most  stubborn  issue  confronting  the  union. 


if 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  171 

The  principle  involves  the  employment  of  only 
union  men  in  a  shop;  it  means  a  monopoly  of  jobs 
by  members  of  the  union.  The  issue  is  as  old  as  the 
unions  themselves  and  as  perplexing  as  human 
nature.  As  early  as  1806  it  was  contended  for  by 
the  Philadelphia  cordwainers  and  by  1850  it  had 
become  an  established  union  policy.  While  wages 
and  hours  are  now,  in  the  greater  industrial  fields, 
the  subject  of  a  collective  contract,  this  question 
of  union  monopoly  is  still  open,  though  there  has 
been  some  progress  towards  an  adjustment.  Vv'her- 
ever  the  trade  agreement  provides  for  a  closed 
shop,  the  union,  through  its  proper  committees  and 
oflBcers,  assumes  at  least  part  of  the  responsibility 
of  the  discipline.  The  agreement  also  includes 
methods  for  arbitrating  diflferences.  The  acid  test 
of  the  union  is  its  capacity  to  live  up  to  this 
trade  agreement. 

For  the  purpose  of  forcing  its  policies  upon  its 
employers  and  society  the  unions  have  resorted  to 
the  strike  and  picketing,  the  boycott,  and  the  union 
label.  When  violence  occurs,  it  usually  is  the  con- 
comitant of  a  strike;  but  violence  unaccompanied 
by  a  strike  is  sometimes  used  as  a  union  weapon. 

The  strike  is  the  oldest  and  most  spectacula. 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  labor.    For  many  years  it 


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172  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

was  thought  a  necessary  concomitant  of  machine 
industry.    The  strike,  however,  antedates  machin- 
ery and  was  a  practical  method  of  protest  long 
before  there  were  unions.    Men  in  a  shop  simply 
agreed  not  to  work  further  and  walked  out.    The 
earliest  strike  in  the  United  States,  as  disclosed  by 
the  United  States  Department  of  Labor  occurred 
in  1741  among  the  journeymen  bakers  in  New  York 
City.     In  1792  the  cordwainers  of  Philadelphia 
struck.    By  1834  strikes  were  so  prevalent  that  the 
New  York  Daily  Advertiser  declared  them  to  be 
"all  the  fashion."    These  demonstrrtions  were  all 
small  affairs  compared  with  the  strikes  that  dis- 
organized industry  after  the  Civil  War  or  those 
that  swept  the  country  in  successive  waves  in  the 
lat^  ieventies,  the  eighties,  and  the  nineties.    The 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  has  tabulated  the 
strike  statistics  for  the  twenty-five  year  period 
from  1881  to  1905.    This  list  discloses  the  fact  that 
38,303  strikes  and  lockouts  occurred,  involving 
199.954  establishments  and  7,444, 279  employees. 
About  2,000,000  other  employees  were  thrown  out 
of  work  as  an  indirect  result.    In  1894,  the  year  of 
the  great  Pullman  strike,  610,425  men  were  out  of 
work  at  one  time;  and  659,792  in  1902.    How  much 
time  and  money  these  ten  million  wage-earners 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE 


ITS 


lost,  and  their  employers  lost,  and  society  lost,  can 
never  be  computed,  nor  how  much  nervous  energy 
was  wasted,  good  will  thrown  to  the  winds,  and 
mutual  suspicion  created. 

The  increase  of  union  influence  is  apparent,  for 
recognition  of  the  union  has  become  more  fre- 
quently a  cause  for  strikes. '  Moreover,  while  the 
unions  were  responsible  for  about  47  per  cent  of  the 
strikes  in  1881,  they  had  originated,  directly  or 
indirectly,  75  per  cent  in  1905.  Moie  significant, 
indeed,  is  the  fact  that  striking  is  a  growing  habit. 
In  1903,  lor  instance,  there  were  3494  strike.'^,  an 
average  of  about  ten  a  day. 

Preparedness  is  the  watchword  of  the  Unions  in 
this  warfare.  They  have  generals  and  captains,  a 
war  chest  and  relief  committees,  as  well  as  publici- 
ty agents  and  sympathy  scouts  whose  duty  it  is 
to  enlist  the  interest  of  the  public.  Usually  the 
leaders  of  the  unions  are  conservative  and  deprecate 


1  ^ 


■  The  cause  of  the  strikes  tabulated  by  the  Bureau  of  Labor  ia 
shown  in  the  following  table  uf  percentages: 


1S81 

!S91 

1901 

190.5 

For  increase  of  waRes: 

61 

i7 

29 

34 

Against  reduction  of  wages: 

1" 

11 

4 

a 

For  reduction  in  hours: 

3 

5 

7 

o 

Recognition  of  Union: 

« 

14 

88 

it 

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174  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

violence.    But  a  strike  by  its  very  nature  offers 
an  opportunity  to  the  lawless.     The  destruction  of 
property  and  the  coercion  of  workmen  have  been 
so  prevalent  in  the  past  that,  in  the  public  mind, 
violence  has  become  universally  associated  with 
strikes.  Judge  Jenkins,  of  the  United  States  Circuit 
Court,  declared,  in  a  leading  case,  that  "a  strike 
without  violence  would  equal  the  representation  of 
Hamlet  with  the  part  of  Hamlet  omitted."  Justice 
Brewer  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  said 
that  "the  common  rule  as  to  strikes"  is  not  only 
for  the  workers  to  quit  but  to  "forcibly  prevent 
others  from  taking  their  place."    Historic  examples 
mvolving  violence  of  this  sort  are  the  great  railway 
strikes  of  1877,  when  Pittsburgh.  Reading,  Cincin- 
nati,  Chicago,  and  Buffalo  were  mob-ridden;  the 
strike  of  the  steel-workers  at  Homestead,  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  1892;  the  Pullman  strike  of  1894,  when 
President  Cleveland  sent  Federal  troops  to  Chicago ; 
the  great  anthracite  strike  of  1902,  which  the  Fed- 
eral Commission  characterized  as  "stained  with 
a  record  of  riot  and  bloodshed  ";  the  civil  war  in  the 
Colorado  and  Idaho  mining  regions,  where  the  West- 
ern Federation  of  Miners  battled  with  the  militia 
and  Federal  troops;  the  dynamite  outrages,  per- 
petrated by  the  structural  iron  workers,  stretching 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  175 

across  the  entire  country,  and  reaching  a  das- 
tardly climax  in  the  dynamiting  of  the  Los  Angeles 
Times  building  on  October  1.  1910.  in  which  some 
twenty  men  were  killed.    The  recoil  from  this  out- 
rage was  the  severest  blow  which  organized  labor 
has  received  in  America.     John  J.  McNamara, 
Secretary  of  the  Structural  Iron  Workers'  Associa- 
tion, and  his  brother  James  were  indicted  for  mur- 
der.   After  the  trial  was  staged  and  the  eyes  of  the 
nation  were  upon  it,  the  pubhc  was  shocked  and 
the  hopes  of  labor  unionists  were  shattered  by  the 
confessions  of  the  principals.    In  March,  1912,  a 
Federal  Grand  Jury  at  Indianapolis  returned  fifty- 
four  indictments  against  oflScers  and  members  of 
the  same  union  for  participation  in  dynamite  out- 
rages that  had  occurred  during  the  six  years  in 
many  parts  of  the  country,  with  a  toll  of  ove-  one 
hundred  lives  and   the  destruction  of  property 
valued  at  many  millions  of  dollars.    Among  those 
indicted  was  the  president  of  the  International 
Association  of  Bridge  and  Structural  Iron  Workers, 
^lost  of  the  defendants  were  sentenced  to  various 
terms  in  the  penitentiary. 

The  records  of  this  industrial  warfare  are  re- 
plete with  lesser  battles  where  thuggery  joined 
hands  with  desperation  in  the  struggle  for  wages. 


S\  ; 


II 


li 


I.i 


176  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

Evidence  is  not  wanting  that  local  leaders  have 
frequently  incited  their  men  to  commit  acts  of  vio- 
lence in  order  to  impress  the  public  with  their 
earnestness.     It  is  not  an  inviting  picture,  this 
matching  of  the  sullen  violence  of  the  mob  against 
the  sullen  vigilance  of  the  corporation.    Yet  such 
methods  have  not  always  been  used,  for  the  union 
has  done  much  to  systematize  this  guerrilla  war- 
fare.   It  has  matched  the  ingenuity  and  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  employer,  backed  by  his  detectives  and 
professional  strike-breakers;  it  has  perfected  its 
organization  so  that  the  blow  of  a  whistle  or  the 
mere  uplifting  of  a  hand  can  silence  a  great  mill. 
Some  of  the  notable  strikes  have  been  managed 
with  rare  skill  and  diplomacy.    Some  careful  ob- 
servers, indeed,  are  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  the 
amount  of  violence  that  takes  place  in  the  average 
strike  has  been  grossly  exaggerated.    They  main- 
tain that,  considering  the  great  number  of  strikes, 
the  earnestness  with  which  they  are  fought,  the  op- 
portunity they  oflFer  to  the  lawless,  and  the  vast 
range  of  territory  they  cover,  the  amount  of  dam- 
age to  property  and  person  is  unusually  small  and 
that  the  public,  through  sensational  newspaper  re- 
ports of  one  or  two  acts  of  violence,  is  led  to  an 
exaggerated  opinion  of  its  prevalence. 


I.  I.( 


•f 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  m 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the  wisdom 
and  conservatism  of  the  national  labor  leaders  is 
neutralized  by  their  lack  of  authority  in  their  par- 
ticular organization.    A  large  price  is  paid  for  the 
autonomy  that  permits  the  local  unions  to  declare 
strikes  without  the  sanction  of  the  general  o£R-ers. 
There  are  only  a  few  unions,  perhaps  half  a  dozen, 
in  which  a  local  can  be  expelled  for  striking  con- 
trary to  the  wish  of  the  national  officers.    In  the 
United  Mine  Workers*  Union,  for  example,  the 
local  must  secure  the  consent  of  the  district  offi- 
cers and  national  president,  or,  if  these  disagree, 
of  the  executive  board,  before  it  can  dec! -re  a 
strike.    The  tendency  to  strike  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment  is  much  more  marked  among  the  newer 
unions  than  among  the  older  ones,  which  have  per- 
fected their  strike  machinery  through  much  ex- 
perience and  have  learned  the  cost  of  hasty  and 
unjustified  action. 

A  less  conspicuous  but  none  the  less  effective 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  labor  is  the  boycott,' 
which  is  carried  by  some  of  the  unions  to  a  terrible 

'  In  1880.  Lord  Erne,  an  absentee  Irish  landlord,  sent  Captain 
Boycott  to  Connemara  to  subdue  his  irate  tenants.  The  people  of 
the  region  refused  to  have  any  intercourse  whatever  with  the  agent 
or  his  family.  And  social  and  business  ostracism  has  since  been 
known  as  the  boycott. 


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178  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

perfection.  It  reached  its  greatest  power  in  the  dec- 
ade between  1881  and  1891.  Though  it  was  aimed 
at  a  great  variety  of  industries,  it  seemed  to  be  pecu- 
liarly effective  in  the  theater,  hotel,  restaurant,  and 
publishing  business,  and  in  the  clothing  and  cigar 
trades.  For  sheer  arbitrary  coerciveness,  nothing 
in  the  armory  of  the  union  is  so  effective  as  the  boy- 
cott. A  flourishing  business  finds  its  trade  gone 
overnight.  Leading  customers  withdraw  their  pat- 
ronage at  the  union's  threat.  The  alert  picket  is 
the  harbinger  of  ruin,  and  the  union  black  list  is  as 
fraught  with  threat  as  the  black  hand. 

The  New  York  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor 
has  shown  that  during  the  period  of  eight  years 
between  1885  and  1892  there  were  1352  boycotts 
in  New  York  State  alone.     A  sort  of  terrorism 
spread  among  the  tradespeople  of  the  cities.    But 
the  unions  went  too  far.    Instances  of  gross  unfair- 
ness aroused  public  sympathy  against  the  boy- 
cotters.    In  New  York  City,  for  instance,  a  Mrs. 
Grey  operated  a  small  bakery  with  nonunion  help. 
Upon  her  refusal  to  unionize  her  shop  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  walking  delegate,  her  customers  were 
sent  the  usual  boycott  notice,  and  pickets  were 
posted.    Her  delivery  wagons  were  followed,  and 
her  customers  were  threatened.     Grocers  selling 


f< 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  179 

her  bread  were  systematically  boycotted.    All  this 
persecution  merely  aroused  public  sympathy  for 
Mrs.  Grey,  and  she  found  her  bread  becoming  im- 
mensely popular.    The  boycotters  then  demanded 
$2500  for  paying  their  boycott  expenses.     When 
news  of  this  attempt  at  exto'-+ion  was  made  public, 
it  heightened  the  tide  of  sympathy,  the  courts  took 
up  the  matter,  and  the  boycott  failed.    The  New 
York  Boycotter,  a  journal  devoted  to  this  form  of 
coercion,  declared:    "In  boycotting  we  believe  it 
to  be  legitimate  to  strike  a  man  financially,  socially, 
or  politically.    We  believe  in  hitting  him  where  it 
win  hurt  the  most;  we  believe  in   -emorselessly 
crowding  him  to  the  wall;  but  when  he  is  down, 
instead  of  striking  him,  we  would  lift  him  up  and 
stand  him  once  more  on  hfs  feet."    When  the  boy- 
cott thus  enlisted  the  aid  of  blackmail,  it  was 
doomed  in  the  public  esteem.   Boycott  indictments 
multiplied,  and  in  one  year  in  New  York  City  alone, 
over  one  hundred  leaders  of  such  attempts  at 
coercion  were  sentenced  to  imprisonment. 

The  boycott,  however,  was  not  laid  aside  as  a 
necessary  weapon  of  organized  labor  because  it 
had  been  abused  by  corrupt  or  ovcrzealous  union- 
ists, nor  because  it  had  been  declared  illegal  by  the 
courts.    All  the  resources  of  the  more  conservative 


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180  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

unions  and  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
have  been  enlisted  to  make  it  effective  in  extreme 
instances  where  the  strike  has  failed.  This  appli 
cation  of  the  method  can  best  be  illustrated  by  the 
two  most  important  cases  of  boycott  in  our  history, 
the  Buck's  Stove  and  Range  case  and  the  Danbury 
Hatters'  case.  Both  were  fought  through  the  Feder- 
al courts,  with  the  defendants  backed  by  the  Ameri- 
can Federation  and  opposed  by  the  Anti-Boycott 
Association,  a  federation  of  employers. 

The  Buck's  Stove  and  Range  Company  of  St. 
Louis  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  Metal  Polish- 
ers' Union  by  insisting  upon  a  ten-hour  day.  On 
August  27, 1906,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  aitcnoon,  on 
a  prearranged  signal,  the  employees  walked  out 
They  returned  to  work  the  next  morning  and  all 
were  permitted  to  take  their  accustomed  places 
except  those  who  had  given  the  signal.  They  were 
discharged.  At  five  o'clock  that  afternoon  the 
men  put  aside  their  work,  and  the  following  morn- 
ing reappeared.  Again  the  men  who  had  given  the 
signal  were  discharged,  and  the  rest  went  to  work. 
The  union  then  sent  notice  to  the  foreman  that  the 
discharged  men  must  be  reinstated  or  that  all  would 
quit.  A  strike  ensued  which  soon  led  to  a  boycott 
of  national  proportions.    It  spread  from  the  local 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  "  i 

to  the  St.  Louis  Central  Trades  and  Labor  Union 
and  to  the  Metal  Polishers'  Union.  In  1907  the 
executive  council  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  officially  placed  the  Buck's  Stove  and  Range 
Company  on  the  unfair  list  and  gave  this  action 
wide  and  conspicuous  circulation  in  The  Federa- 
ticnist.  This  boycott  received  further  impetus 
from  the  action  of  the  Mine  Workers,  who  in  their 
Annual  Convention  resolved  that  the  Buck's  Stove 
and  Range  Company  be  put  on  the  unfair  list  and 
that  "any  member  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America  purchasing  a  stove  of  above  make  be 
fined  $5.00  and  failing  to  pay  the  same  be  expelled 
from  the  organization." 

Espionage  became  so  efficient  and  letters  from 
old  customers  withdrawing  patronage  became  so 
numerous  and  came  from  so  wide  a  range  of  terri- 
tory that  the  company  found  itself  rapidly  nearing 
ruin.  An  injunction  was  secured,  enjoining  the 
American  Federation  from  blacklisting  the  con 
pany.  The  labor  journals  circumvented  thi'*  man- 
date by  publishing  in  display  type  the  statement 
that  "It  is  unlawful  for  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  to  boycott  Buck's  Stoves  and  Ranges," 
and  then  in  small  type  adroitly  recited  the  news  of 
the  court's  decision  in  such  a  way  that  the  reader 


'Mi 

'i    iil 


182  THE  ARAflES  OF  LABOR 

would  s*?e  at  a  glance  that  the  company  was  under 
union  ban.     These  evasions  of  the  court's  order 
were  interpreted  as  contempt,  and  in  punishment 
the  officers  of  the  Federation  were  sentenced  to 
imprisonment  —  Frank  Morrison  for  six  months, 
John  Mitchell  for  nine  months,  Samuel  Gompers 
for  twelve  months.    But  a  technicality  intervened 
between  the  leaders  and  the  cells  awaiting  them. 
The  public  throughout  the  country  had  followed 
the  course  of  this  case  with  mingled  feelings  of 
sympathy  and  disfavor,  and  though  the  boycott 
had   never   met   with   popular  approval,  on  the 
whole  the  public  was  relieved  to  learn  that  the 
jail-sentences  were  not  to  be  served. 

The  Danbury  Hatters'  boycott  was  brought  on 
in  1903  by  the  attempt  of  the  Hatters'  Union  to 
make  a  closed  shop  of  a  manufacturing  concern  in 
Danbury,  Connecticut.  The  unions  moved  upon 
Danbury,  flushed  with  two  recent  victories  —  one 
in  Philadelphia,  where  an  important  hat  factory 
had  agreed  to  the  closed  shop  after  spending 
some  $40,000  in  fighting,  and  another  at  Orange. 
New  Jersey,  where  a  manufacturer  had  spent 
$25,000.  But  as  the  Danbury  concern  was  de- 
termined to  fight  the  union,  in  1902  a  nation- 
wide boycott  was  declared.     The  company  then 


■)| 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  iss 

brought  suit  against  members  of  the  union  in  the 
United  States  District  Court.    Injunction  proceed- 
ings reached   the  Supreme  Court   of  the   I'nited 
States  on  a  demurrer,  and  in  February,  1908,  the 
court  declared  that  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law 
forbade  interstate  boycotts.     The  case  then  re- 
turned to  the  original  court  for  trial.    Testimony 
was  taken  in  many  State     and  after  a  trial  lasting 
twelve  weeks  the  jury  assessed  the  damages  to  the 
plaintiff  at  $74,000.    On  account  of  error,  the  case 
was  remanded  for  re-trial  in  1911.    At  the  second 
trial  the  jury  gave   the   plaintiff  a   verdict   for 
$80,000,  the  full  amount  asked.    According  to  the 
law,  this  amount  was  trebled,  leaving  the  judg- 
ment, with  costs  added,  at  $252,000.    The  Supreme 
Court  having  sustained  the  verdict,  the  puzzling 
question  of  how  to  collect  it  arose.    As  such  funds 
as  the  union  had  were  invulnerable  to  proce.ss,  the 
savings  bank  accounts  of  the  individual  defendants 
were  attached,    l^he  union  insisted  that  the  defend- 
ants were  not  tax.ible  for  accrued  interest,  and  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  now  appealed  to 
for  a  third  time,  sustained  the  plaintiff's  contention, 
^n  this   manner  $60,000   were   obtained.     Fore- 
closure proceedings  were  then  begun  against  one 
hundred  and  forty  homes  belonging  to  union  men 


t    : 


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184  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

in  the  towns  of  Danbury,  Norwalk,  and  Bethel. 
The  union  boasted  that  this  sale  would  prove  only 
an  incubus  to  the  purchasers,  for  nc  one  would 
dare  occupy  the  houses  sold  under  such  circum- 
stances. In  the  meantime  the  American  Federa- 
tion, which  had  financed  the  litigation,  undertook 
to  raise  the  needed  sum  by  voluntary  collection 
and  made  Gompers's  birthday  the  occasion  for  a 
gift  to  the  Danbury  local.  The  Federation  insisted 
that  the  houses  be  sold  on  foreclosure  and  that  the 
collecte.l  money  be  used  not  as  a  prior  settlement 
but  as  an  indemnity  to  the  individuals  thus  de- 
prived of  their  homes.  Rancor  gave  way  to  r'  m, 
however,  and  just  before  the  day  fixed  for  the  fore- 
closure sale  the  matter  was  settled.    In  all,  $235,- 

000  was  paid  in  damages  by  the  union  to  the  com- 
pany. In  the  fourteen  years  during  which  this 
contest  was  waged,  about  forty  defendants,  one  of 

1  he  plaintiffs,  and  eight  judges  who  had  passed  on 
the  controversy,  died.  The  outcome  served  as  a 
spur  to  the  Federation  in  hastening  through  Con- 
gress the  Clayton  bill  of  1914,  designed  to  place  la- 
bor unions  beyond  the  reach  of  the  anti-trust  laws. 

The  union  label  has  in  more  recent  years  achieved 
importance  as  a  weapon  in  union  warfare.  Tills 
is  a  mark  or  device  denoting  a  union-made  article. 


v\ 


ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  185 

It  might  be  termed  a  sort  of  labor  union  trade- 
mark. Union  men  are  admonished  to  favor  the 
goods  so  marked,  but  it  was  not  until  national 
organizations  were  highly  p<^rfected  that  the  label 
could  become  of  much  i  ^actical  value.  It  is  a 
device  of  American  invention  and  was  first  used 
by  the  cigar  makers  in  1874.  In  1880  their  nation- 
al body  adopted  the  now  familiar  blue  label  and, 
with  great  skill  and  perseverance  and  at  a  consider- 
able outlay  of  money,  has  pushed  ,"ts  union-made 
w  re,  in  the  face  of  sweat-shop  competit'-m,  of 
the  introduction  of  cigar  making  machinery,  and 
of  fraudulent  imitation.  Gradually  other  unions 
making  products  of  common  consumption  adopted 
labels.  Conspicuous  among  these  were  the  gar- 
ment makers,  the  hat  makers,  the  shoe  makers, 
and  the  brewery  workers.  As  the  value  of  the 
label  manifestly  depends  upon  the  trade  it  en- 
tices, the  unions  are  careful  to  emphasize  the 
sanitary  conditions  and  good  workmanship  hich 
a  label  represents. 

The  application  of  the  label  is  being  rapidly 
extended.  Building  materials  are  now  in  many 
large  cities  under  label  domination.  In  Chicago 
the  bricklayers  have  for  over  fifteen  years  been 
able  to  force  the  builders  to  use  only  union-label 


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186  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

brick,  and  the  carpenters  have  forced  the  contrac- 
tors to  use  only  material  from  union  mills.  There 
is  practically  no  limit  to  this  form  of  mandatory 
boycott.  The  barbers,  retail  clerks,  hotel  em- 
ployees, and  butcher  workmen  hang  union  cards 
in  their  places  of  employment  or  wear  badges  as 
insignia  of  union  loyalty.  As  these  labels  do  not 
come  under  the  protection  of  the  United  States 
trade-mark  laws,  the  unions  have  not  infrequently 
been  forced  to  bring  suits  against  counterfeiters. 
Finally,  in  their  efforts  to  fortify  themselves 
against  undue  increase  in  the  rate  of  production  or 
*'  speeding  up,"  against  the  inrush  of  new  machin- 
ery, and  against  the  debilitating  alternation  of  rush 
work  and  no  work,  the  unions  have  attempted  to 
restrict  the  output.  The  United  States  Industri- 
'.  «Jommission  reported  in  1901  that  "there  has 
always  been  a  strong  tendency  among  labor  or- 
ganizations to  discourage  exertion  beyond  a  certain 
limit.  The  tendency  does  not  express  itself  in  for- 
mal rules.  On  the  contrary,  it  appears  chiefly  in 
the  silent,  or  at  least  informal  pressure  of  working 
class  opinion."  Some  unions  have  rules,  others  a 
distinct  understanding,  on  the  subject  of  a  normal 
day's  work,  and  some  discourage  piecework.  But 
it  is  diflScult  to  determine  how  far  this  policy  has 


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ISSUES  AND  WARFARE  187 

been  carried  in  application.  Carroll  D.  Wright, 
in  a  special  report  as  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Labor  in  1904,  said  that  "  unions  in  some  cases 
fix  a  limit  to  the  amount  of  work  a  workman  may 
perform  a  day.  Usually  it  is  a  secret  understand- 
ing, but  sometimes,  when  the  union  is  strong, 
no  concealment  is  made."  His  report  mentioned 
several  trades,  including  the  building  trades,  in 
which  this  curtailment  is  prevalent. 

The  course  of  this  industrial  warfare  between 
the  unions  and  the  employers  has  been  replete 
with  sordid  details  of  selfishness,  corruption,  hatred, 
suspicion,  and  malice.  In  every  community  the 
strike  or  the  boycott  has  been  an  ominous  visitant, 
leaving  in  its  trail  a  social  bitterness  which  even 
time  finds  it  difficult  to  eflFace.  In  the  great  cities 
and  the  factory  towns,  the  constant  repetition  of 
labor  struggles  has  created  centers  of  perennial  dis- 
content which  are  sources  of  never-ending  reprisals. 
In  spite  of  individual  injustice,  however,  one  can 
discern  in  tlie  larger  movements  a  current  setting 
towards  a  collective  justice  and  a  communal  ideal 
which  society  in  self-defense  is  imposing  upon 
the  combatants. 


j^l^mgm 


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CHAPTER  IX 


THE  NEW  terrorism:  THE  I.  W.  W. 


It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  field  of  organized 
labor  would  be  left  undisputed  to  the  moderation 
of  the  trade  union  after  its  triumph  over  the  ex- 
treme methods  of  the  Knights  of  Labor.  The 
public,  however,  did  not  anticipate  the  revolution- 
ary ideal  which  again  sought  to  inflame  industrial 
unionism.  After  the  decadence  of  the  older  type 
of  the  industrial  union  several  condition  ^  mani- 
fested themselves  which  now,  in  retrospect,  appear 
to  have  encouraged  the  violent  militants  who  call 
themselves  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World. 
First  of  all,  there  took  place  in  Europe  the  rise 
of  syndicalism  with  its  adoption  of  sympathetic 
strikes  as  one  of  its  methods.  Syndicalism  flour- 
ished especially  in  France,  where  from  its  incep- 
tion the  alert  French  mind  had  shaped  for  it  a 
philosophy  of  violence,  whose  subtlest  exponent 
was  Georges  Sorel.     The  Socialist  Future  of  Trade 

188 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    189 

Unions,  which  he  published  in  1897,  was  an  early 
exposition  of  his  views,  but  his  Reflections  upon 
Violence  in  1908  is  the  best  known  of  his  contribu- 
tions to  this  newer  doctrine.  With  true  Gallic  fer- 
vor, the  French  workingman  'lad  sought  to  trans- 
late his  philosophy  into  action,  and  in  1906  under- 
took, with  the  aid  of  a  revolutionary  organization 
known  as  the  Confederation  General  du  Travail,  a 
series  of  strikes  which  culminated  in  the  railroad 
and  post  office  strike  of  1909.  All  these  uprisings 
—  for  they  were  in  reality  more  than  strikes  — 
were  characterized  by  extreme  language,  by  vio- 
lent action,  and  by  impressive  public  demonstra- 
tions. In  Italy,  Spain,  Norway,  and  Belgium,  the 
syndicalists  were  also  active.  Their  partiality  to 
violent  methods  attracted  general  attention  in 
Europe  and  appealed  to  that  small  group  of  Ameri- 
can labor  leaders  whose  experience  in  the  W^estern 
Federation  of  Miners  had  taught  them  the  value  of 
dynamite  as  a  press  agent. 

In  the  meantime  material  was  being  gathered 
for  a  new  outbreak  in  the  United  States.  The 
casual  laborers  had  greatly  increased  in  numbers, 
especially  in  the  West.  These  migratory  working- 
men —  the  "hobo  miners,"  the  "hobo  lumber- 
jacks," the  "blanket  stiflFs,"  of  colloquial  speech  — • 


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190  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

wander  about  the  country  in  seprch  of  work.  They 
rarely  have  ties  of  family  aiJ  seldom  ties  of  local- 
ity. About  one-half  of  these  wanderers  are  Ameri- 
can bom.  They  are  to  be  described  wi*'  ,'isior 
as  "floaters."  Their  range  of  operation:,  includes 
the  wheat  regions  west  of  the  Mississippi,  the  iron 
mines  of  Michigan  and  Minnesota,  the  mines  and 
forests  of  Idaho,  Montana,  Colorado,  Washington, 
and  Oregon,  and  the  fields  of  California  and  Ari- 
zona. They  prefer  to  winter  in  the  cities,  but,  as 
their  only  refuge  is  the  bunk  lodging  house,  they 
increase  the  social  problem  in  New  York,  Chicago, 
San  Francisco,  and  other  centers  of  the  unem- 
ployed. Many  of  these  migrants  never  were  skilled 
workers;  but  a  considerable  portion  of  them  have 
been  forced  down  into  the  ranks  of  the  unskilled 
by  the  inevitable  tragedies  of  prolonged  unemploy- 
ment. Such  men  lend  a  willing  ear  to  the  labor 
agitator.  The  exact  number  in  this  wandering 
class  is  not  known.  The  railroad  companies  have 
estimated  'that  at  a  given  time  there  have  been 
500,000  hobos  trying  to  beat  their  way  from  place 
to  place.  Unquestionably  a  large  percentage  of 
the  23,964  trespassers  killed  and  of  the  25,236  in- 
jured on  railway  rights  of  way  from  1901  to  1904 
belonged  to  this  class. 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    191 

It  is  not  alone  these  drifters,  however,  who  be- 
cause of  their  irresponsibility  and  their  hostility 
toward  society  became  easy  victims  to  the  indus- 
trial organizer.  The  great  mass  of  unskilled  work- 
ers in  the  factory  towns  proved  quite  as  tempting 
to  the  propagandist.  Among  laborers  of  this  class, 
wages  are  the  lowest  and  living  conditions  the  most 
uninviting.  Moreover,  this  group  forms  the  indus- 
trial reservoir  which  receives  the  settlings  of  the 
most  recent  European  and  Asiatic  i.  .migration. 
These  people  have  a  standard  of  living  and  concep- 
tions of  political  and  individual  freedom  which  are 
at  variance  with  American  traditions.  Though  their 
employment  is  steadier  than  that  of  the  migratory 
laborer,  and  though  they  often  have  ties  of  family 
and  other  stabilizing  responsibilities,  their  lives 
are  subject  to  periods  of  unemployment,  and  these 
fluctuations  serve  to  feed  their  innate  restlessness. 
They  are,  in  quite  the  literal  sense  of  the  word, 
American  proletarians.  They  are  more  volatile 
than  any  European  proletarian,  for  they  have 
learned  the  lesson  of  migration,  and  they  retain 
the  socialistic  and  anarchistic  philosophy  of  their 
European  fellow-workers. 

There  were  several  attempts  to  organize  casual 
labor  after  the  decline  of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 


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192  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

But  it  is  difficult  to  arouse  any  sustained  interest 
in  industrial  organizations  among  workingmen  of 
this  class.    They  lack  the  motive  of  members  of  a 
trade  union,  and  the  migratory  character  of  such 
workers   deprives  their  organization  of  stability. 
One  industrial  organization,  however,  has  been  of 
the  greatest  encouragement  to  the  I.  W.  W.    The 
Western  Federation  of  Miners,  which  was  organ- 
ized at  Butte,  Montana,  en  May  15,  1893,  has 
enjoyed  a  more  turbulent  history  than  any  other 
American  labor  union.     It  was  conceived  in  that 
spirit  of  rough  resistance  which  local  unions  of 
miners,  for  some  years  before  the  amalgamation 
of  the  unions,  had  opposed  to  the  ruthless  and  firm 
determination  of  the  mine  owners.    In  1897,  the 
president  of  the  miners,  after  quoting  the  words  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  giving  citi- 
zens the  right  to  bear  arms,  said :  "This  you  should 
comply  with  immediately.     Every  union  should 
have  a  rifle  club.    I  strongly  advise  you  to  provide 
every  member  with  the  latest  improved  rifle  which 
can  be  obtained  from  the  factory  at  a  nominal 
price.    I  entreat  you  to  take  action  on  this  impor- 
tant question,  so  that  in  two  years  we  can  hear  the 
inspiring  music  of  the  martial  tread  of  25,000 
armed  men  in  the  ranks  of  labor." 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    19S 

This  militant  vision  was  fortunately  never  quite 
fulfilled.    But  armeu  strikers  there  were,  by  the 
thousands,  and  the  gruesome  details  of  their  fight 
with  mine  owners  in  Colorado  are  set  forth  in  a  spe- 
cial report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Labor  in  1905.    The  use  of  dynamite  became  early 
associated  with  this  warfare  in  Colorado.    In  1 903  a 
fatal  explosion  occurred  in  the  Vindicator  mine,  and 
Telluride.the  county  seat,  was  proclaimed  to  be  in  a 
state  of  insurrection  and  rebellion.     In  1904  a  cage 
lifting  miners  from  the  shaft  in  the  Independence 
mine  at  Victor  was  dropped  and  fifteen  men  were 
killed.    There  were  many  minor  outrages,  isolated 
murders,  "white  cap"  raids, infernal  machines, de- 
portations, black  lists,  and  so  on.   In  Montana  and 
Idaho  similar  scenes  were  enacted  and  reached  a 
climax  in  the  murder  of  Governor  Steunenberg 
of  Idaho.     Yet  the  union  officers  indicted  for  this 
murder  were  released  by  the  trial  jury. 

Such  was  the  preparatory  school  of  the  new 
unionism,  which  had  its  inception  in  several  infor- 
mal conferences  held  in  Chicago.  The  first,  at- 
tended by  only  six  radical  leaders,  met  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1904.  The  second,  held  in  January,  1905, 
issued  a  manifesto  attacking  the  trade  unions,  call- 
ing for  a  "new  departure"  in  the  labor  movement, 


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194 


THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 


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an  .nviting  those  who  desired  to  join  in  organ- 
ag  such  a  movement  to  "meet  in  convention 
m  Chicago  the  27th  day  of  June,  1905."  About 
two  hundred  persons  responded  to  this  appeal  and 
organized  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World, 
almost  unnoticed  by  the  press  of  the  day  and 
scorned  by  the  American  Federation  of  Labor, 
whose  official  organ  had  called  those  in  attendance 
at  the  second  conference  "engaged  in  the  delecta- 
ble work  of  trying  to  divert,  pervert,  and  disrupt 
the  labor  movement  of  the  count-y," 

An  overwhelming  influence  in  this  convention 
was  wielded  by  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners 
and  the  Socialistic  American  Labor  Union,  two 
radical  labor  bodies  which  looked  upon  the  trade 
unions  as  "union  snobbery"  and  the  "aristocracy 
of  labor,"  and  upon  the  American  Federation  as 
"the  consummate  flower  of  craft  nnionism"  and 
"a  combination  of  job  trusts."  They  believed 
trade  unionism  wrong  in  principle.  They  discarded 
the  principle  of  trade  autonomy  for  the  principle 
of  laboring  class  solidarity,  for,  as  one  of  their 
spokesmen  said,  "The  industrial  union,  in  contra- 
distinction to  the  craft  union,  is  that  organization 
through  which  all  its  members  in  one  industry,  or 
in  all  industries  if  necessary,  can  act  as  a  unit." 


I  ,'f 


STEEL-MUL  fIrORKERS  OF  TODAY 

A  cluMBce  group  which  neoiplifics  the  wide  raage  of  prcaeat- 
day  AaericM  labor.  Slovak,  Irkh,  German,  and  Poliab  types  arc 
represented,  besides  several  in<tfviditals  ol  iadeterniiuUe  ocigiii. 
Photograph  by  Lewis  W.  Hiae.  ^ 


n 


A  MINER  OF  THE  OLD  SCHOOL 

The  predoounant  type  in  the  coal  mining  districts  thirty  or 
forty  yean  ago.  n^  largely  displaced  by  Pde  and  Slovak. 
Photograph  by  Lewb  W.  Hine. 


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THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    195 

While  this  convention  was  united  in  denouncing 
the  trade  u  lions,  it  was  not  so  unanimous  in  other 
matters,  for  the  leaders  were  all  veterans  in  those 
factional  quarrels  which  characterize  Socialists  the 
world  over.  Eugene  V.  Debs,  for  example,  was  the 
hero  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  and  had  achieved 
wide  notoriety  during  the  Pullman  strike  by  being 
imprisoned  for  contempt  of  court.  William  D. 
Haywood,  popularly  known  as  "Big  Bill,"  re- 
ceived a  rigorous  training  in  the  Wc^+ern  Federa- 
tion of  Miners.  Daniel  DeLeon,  whose  right  name, 
the  American  Federationist  alleged,  was  Daniel 
Loeb,  was  a  university  graduate  and  a  vehement 
revolutionary,  the  leader  of  the  Socialistic  Labor 
party,  and  the  editor  of  the  Daily  People.  A.  M. 
Simons,  the  leader  of  the  Socialist  party  and  the 
editor  of  the  Coming  Nation,  was  at  swords'  points 
with  DeLeon  Miam  E.  Trautmann  was  the  flu- 

ent spokesma:  e  anti-political  faction.   These 

men  dominated  the  convention. 

After  some  twelve  days  of  discussion,  they 
a^eed  upon  a  constitution  which  established  six 
departments,'  provided  for  a   general  executive 

'  1.  Agriculture,  Land,  Fisheries,  nnd  Water  Products,  t. 
Mining.  S.  Transpo'*ation  and  (ommunication.  4.  Manu- 
facturing and  Gener;  .oduction.  5.  Construction.  0.  Public 
Service. 


4 


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196  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

board  with  centralized  powers,  and  at  the  same 
time  left  to  the  local  and  department  organi- 
zations complete  industrial  autonomy.  The  I. 
W.  W.  in  "the  first  constitution,  crude  and  provi- 
sional as  it  was,  made  room  for  all  the  world's 
workers."'  This  was,  indeed,  the  great  object  of 
the  organization. 

Whatever  visions  of  world  conquest  the  mili- 
tants  may  at  first  have  fostered  were  soon  shattered 
by  internal  strife.      Tliere  were  unreconcilable  ele- 
ments in  the  body:  those  who  regarded  the  politi- 
cal aspect  as  paramount  and  industrial  unions  as 
allies  of  socialism;  those  who  regarded  the  forming 
of  unions  as  paramount  and  politics  as  secondary; 
and  those  who  regarded  all  forms  of  political  activ- 
ity as  mere  waste  of  energy.    The  first  two  groups 
were  tucked  under  the  wings  of  the  Socialist  party 
and  the  Socialist  Labor  party.    The  third  group 
was  frankly  anarchistic  and  revolutionary.    In  the 
fourth   annual  convention   the  Socialist  factions 
withdrew,   established   headquarters  at   Detroit, 
organized  what  is  called  the  Detroit  branch,  and 
left  the  Chicago  field  to  the  revolutionists.     So 
socialism  "pure  and  simple, "  and  what  amounts  to 

•  J.  G.  Hrissenden,  The  Launching  nf  the  Induifrial  Workeri  of 
tkt  World,  page  41. 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    Ifi7 

anarchism  "pure  and  simple,"  fell  out,  after  they 
had  both  agreed  to  disdain  trade  unionism  "pure 
and  simple." 

This  shift  proved  the  great  opportunity  for  Hay- 
wood and  his  disciples.  Feeling  himself  now  free 
of  all  political  encumbrances,  he  gathered  around 
him  a  small  group  of  enthusiastic  leaders,  some  of 
whom  had  a  gift  of  diabolical  intrigue,  and  with  in- 
domitable perseverance  and  zeal  he  set  himself  to 
seeking  out  the  neglected,  unskilled,  and  cji'^ual 
laborer.  Within  a  few  years  he  so  dominated  the 
movement  that,  in  the  public  mind,  the  I.  W.  W.  is 
associated  with  the  Chicago  branch  and  the  Detroit 
faction  is  well-nigh  forgotten. 

As  a  preliminary  to  a  survey  of  some  of  the 
battles  that  made  the  I.  W.  W.  a  symbol  c  /  terror 
in  many  communities  it  will  be  well  to  glance  for  a 
moment  at  the  underlying  doctrines  of  the  organi- 
zation. In  a  preamble  now  notorious  it  declared 
that  "the  working  class  and  the  employing  class 
have  nothing  in  common.  There  can  be  no  peace 
so  long  us  hunger  and  want  are  found  among  mil- 
lions of  working  people,  and  the  few  who  make  up 
the  employing  class  have  all  the  good  things  of 
life.  Between  these  two  classes  a  struggle  must 
go  on  until  the  workers  of  the  world  as  a  class  take 


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II 


198  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

possession  of  the  earth   and   the   machinery  of 
production  and  aboh'sh  the  wage  system." 

This  thesis  is  a  declaration  of  war  as  well  as  a 
declaration  of  principles.     The  I.  W.  W.  aims  at 
nothing  less  than  the  complete  overthrow  of  mod- 
ern capitalism  and  the  political  structure  which 
accompanies    it.     Emma   Goldman,    who   prides 
herself  on  having  received  her  knowledge  of  syn- 
dicalism  "from   actual   contact"   and   not   from 
books,  says  that  "syndicalism  repudiates  and  con- 
demns the  present  industrial  arrangement  as  un- 
just and  criminal."     Edward  Hamond  calls  the 
labor  contract    "the   sacred   cow"   of  industrial 
idolatry  and  says  that  the  aim  of  the  I.  W.  W.  is 
"the  abolition  of  the  wage  system."    And  W.  E. 
Trautmann  aflBrms  that  "the  industrial  unionist 
holds  that  there  can  be  no  agreement  with  the  em- 
ployers of  labor  which  the  workers  have  to  consider 
sacred  and  inviolable."     In  place  of  what  they 
consider  an  unjust  and  universal  capitalistic  order 
they  would  establish  a  new  society  in  which  "the 
unions  of  the  workers  will  own  and  manage  all 
industries,  regulate  consumption,  and  administer 
the  general  social  interests." 

How    is    this    contemplated    revolution    to   be 
achieved  ?     By  the  working  classes  themselves  and 


i      i:  . 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    199 
not  through  poh'tical  activity,  for  "one  of  tlie  first 
principles  of  the  I.  W.  W.  is  that  pohtical  power 
rests  on  economic  power.  ...     It  must  gain  con- 
trol of  the  shops,  ships,  railways,  mines,  mills." 
And  how  is  it  to  gain  this  all-embracing  control? 
By  persuading  every  worker  to  join  Ihe  union,  the 
"one  great  organization  "  which,  according  to  Hay- 
wood, is  to  be  "big  enough  to  take  in  the  black 
man,  the  white  man;  big  enough  to  take  in  all 
nationalities  — an  organization  that  will  be  strong 
enough  to  obliterate  state  boundaries,  to  obliter- 
ate national  boundaries.  .  .  .     We,  the  I.  W.  W. 
stand  on  our  two  feet,  the  class  struggle  and  indus- 
trial unionism,  and  coolly  say  we  want  the  whole 
earth."     When  the  great  union  has  become  uni- 
versal, it  will  simply  take  possession  of  its  own,  will 
"lock  the  employers  out  for  good  as  owners  and 
parasites,  and  give  them  a  chance  to  become  use- 
ful toilers."     The  resistance  that  will  assuredly  be 
made  to  this  process  of  absorption  is  ^o  be  met  by 
direct  action,  the  general  strike,  and  sabotage  — 
a  trinity  of  phrases  imported  from  Europe,  each 
one  of  special  significance. 

"The  general  strike  means  a  stoppage  of  work," 
says  jlmma  Goldman  with  naive  brevity.  It  was 
thought  of  long  before  the  I.  W.  W.  existed,  but  it 


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200 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


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has  become  the  most  valuable  weapon  in  their 
arsenal.  Their  pamphlets  contain  many  allusions 
to  the  great  strikes  in  Belgium,  Russia,  Italy, 
France,  Scandinavia,  and  other  European  cour 
tries,  that  were  so  widespread  as  to  merit  being 
called  general.  If  all  the  workers  can  be  induced 
to  stop  work,  even  for  a  very  brief  interval, 
such  action  would  be  regarded  as  the  greatest 
possible  manifestation  of  the  "collective  power 
of  the  producers." 

Direct  action,  a  term  translated  directly  from 
the  French,  is  more  difficult  to  define.  This 
method  sets  itself  in  opposition  to  the  methods  of  the 
capitalist  in  retaining  control  of  industry,  which  is 
spoken  of  as  indirect  action.  Laws,  machinery, 
credits,  courts,  and  constabulary  are  indirect 
methods  whereby  the  capitalist  keeps  possession  of 
his  property.  The  industrialist  matches  this  with 
a  direct  method.  For  example,  he  engages  in  a 
passive  strike,  obeying  rules  so  literally  as  to  de- 
stroy both  their  utility  and  his  work ;  or  in  an  oppor- 
tune strike,  ceasing  work  suddenly  when  he  knows 
his  employer  has  orders  that  must  be  immediately 
filled;  or  in  a  temporary  strike,  quitting  work  one 
day  and  coming  back  the  next.  His  weapon  is 
organized  opportunism,  wielding  an   unexpected 


ll 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    201 

blow,  and  keeping  the  employer  in  a  frenzy  of 
fearful  anticipation. 

Finally,  sabotage  is  a  word  that  expresses  the 
whole  philosophy  and  practice  of  revolutionary 
labor.    John  Spargo,  in  his  Syndicalism,  Industrial 
Unionism  and  Socialism,  traces  the  origin  of  the 
word  to  the  dock    s'  union  in  London.    Attempt 
after  attempt  Im    ,roved  futile  to  win  by  strikes 
the  demands  of  these  unskilled  workers.    The  men 
were  quite  at  the  end  of  their  resources,  when 
Pnally  they  hit  upon  the  plan  of  "lying  down  on 
job"  or  "soldiering."     As  a  catchword  they 
adopted  the  Scotch  phrase  ca'canny,  to  go  slow  or 
be  careful  not  to  do  too  much.    As  an  example  they 
pointed  to  the  Chinese  coolies  who  met  a  refusal  of 
increased  wages  by  cutting  off  a  few  inches  from 
their  shovels  on  the  principle  of  "small  pay,  small 
work."    He  then  goes  on  to  say  that  "the  idea 
was  very  easily  extended.    From  the  slowing  up 
of  the  human  worker  to  the  slowing  up  of  the  iron 
worker,  the  machi  -s  was  an  easy  transition.   Judi- 
ciously planned   'accidents'  might  easily  create 
confusion  for  which  no  one  could  be  blamed.    A 
few  'mistakes'  in  handling  cargoes  might  easily 
cost  the  employers  far  more  than  a  small  increase 
in  wages  would. " 


1^ 


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fi 


202  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

Some  French  syndicalists,  visiting  London,  were 
greatly  impressed  with  this  new  cunning.  But  as 
they  had  no  ready  translation  for  the  Scottish  ca- 
canny,  they  ingeniously  abstracted  the  same  idea 
from  the  old  French  saying  Travailler  a  coups  dc 
sabots  —  to  work  as  if  one  had  on  wooden  shoes  — 
and  sabotage  thus  became  a  new  and  expressive 
phrase  in  the  labor  war. 

Armed  with  these  weapons,  Haywood  and  his 
henchmen  moved  forward.  Not  long  after  the 
first  convention  in  1905,  they  made  their  presence 
known  at  Goldfield,  Nevada.  Then  they  struck 
simultaneously  at  Youngstown,  Ohio,  and  Port- 
land, Oregon.  The  first  battle,  however,  to  attract 
<?eneral  notice  was  at  McKees  Rocks,  Pennsylvania, 
ii  1909.  In  this  warfare  between  the  .  ecently  or- 
ganized unskilled  workers  and  the  eflScient  state 
constabulary,  the  I.  W.  W.  sent  notice  "that  for 
every  striker  killed  or  injured  by  the  cossacks,  the 
life  of  a  cossack  will  be  exacted  in  return."  And 
they  collected  their  gruesome  toll. 

In  1912  occurred  the  historic  strike  in  the  mill 
town  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts.  This  affair 
was  so  adroitly  managed  by  the  organizers  of  the 
Workers  that  within  a  few  weeks  every  newspaper 
of  importance  in  America  was  publishing  long 


a 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  TE     I.  W.  W.    203 

descriptions  of  the  new  anarchism.  Magazine  writ- 
ers, self-appointed  reformers,  delegations  represent- 
ing various  organizations,  three  committees  of  the 
state  legislature,  the  Governor's  personal  enn'ssary, 
the  United  States  Attorney,  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  and  a  congressional  com- 
mittee devoted  their  time  to  numerous  investiga- 
tions, thereby  giving  immense  satisfaction  to  those 
obscure  agitators  who  were  lifted  suddenly  into 
the  glare  of  universal  notoriety,  to  the  disgust  of 
the  towTi  thus  dragged  into  unenviable  publicity, 
and  to  the  discomfiture  of  the  employers. 

The  legislature  of  Massachusetts  had  reduced 
the  hours  of  work  of  women  and  children  from  fifty- 
six  to  fifty-four  hours  a  week.  Without  making 
adequate  announcement,  the  employers  withheld 
two  hours'  pay  from  the  weekly  stipend.  A  large 
portion  of  the  workers  were  foreigners,  represent- 
ing eighteen  different  nationalities,  most  of  tlicm 
with  a  wholly  inadequate  knowledge  of  English, 
and  all  of  an  inflammable  temperament.  When 
they  found  their  pay  short,  a  group  marched 
through  the  mills,  inciting  others  to  join  them,  and 
the  strike  was  on.  The  American  Federation  of 
Labor  had  paid  little  attention  to  these  workers. 
There  were  some  trade  unions  in  the  mills,  but 


i 


■^f 


V 


204  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

most  of  the  workers  were  unorganized  except  for 
the  fact  that  the  I.  W.  W.  had,  about  eight  months 
before,  gathered  several  hundred  into  an  industrial 
union.     Yet  it  does  not  appear  that  this  union 
started  the  strike.    It  was  a  case  of  spontaneous 
combustion.  No  sooner  had  it  begun,  however,  than 
Joseph  J.  Ettor,  an  I.  W.  W.  organizer,  hastened 
to  take  charge,  and  succeeded  so  well  that  within 
a  few  weeks  he  claimed  7000  members  in  his  union. 
Ettor  proved  a  crafty,  resourceful  general,  quick 
in  action,  magnetic  in  personality,  a  linguist  who 
could  command  his  polyglot  mob.    He  was  also  a 
successful  press  agent  who  exploited  fully  the  un- 
palatable drinking  water  provided  by  the  com- 
panies,   the   inadequate   sewerage,    the    unpaved 
streets,  and  the  practical  destitution  of  many  of 
the  workers.     The  strikers  m.-ide  an  attempt  to 
send  children  to  other  towns  so  that  they  might  be 
better  cared,  for.    After  several  groups  had  thus 
been  taken  away,  the  city  of  Lawrence  interfered, 
claiming  that  many  children  had  been  sent  without 
their  parents'  consent.    On  the  24th  of  February, 
when  a  group  of  forty  children  and  their  mothers 
gathered  at  the  railway  station  to  take  a  train  for 
Philadelphia,  the  police  after  due  warning  refused 
to  let  them  depart.    It  was  then  that  the  Federal 


'--^y 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.  205 
Government  was  called  upon  to  take  action.  The 
strike  committee  telegraphed  Congress:  "Twenty- 
five  thousand  striking  textile  workers  and  citizens 
of  Lawrence  protect  against  the  hideous  brutality 
with  which  the  police  handled  the  women  and 
children  of  Lawrence  this  morning.  Carrying  out 
the  illegal  and  original  orders  of  the  city  marshal 
to  prevent  free  citizens  from  sending  their  children 
out  of  the  city,  striking  men  were  knocked  down, 
women  and  mothers  who  were  trying  to  protect 
their  children  from  the  onslaught  of  the  police 
were  attacked  and  clubbed."  So  widespread  was 
the  opinion  that  unnecessary  brutality  had  taken 
place  that  petitions  for  an  investigation  poured  in 
upon  Congress  from  many  States  and  numerous 
organizations. 

The  whole  country  was  watching  the  situation. 
The  hearings  held  by  a  congressional  committee 
emphasized  the  stupidity  of  the  employers  in  ar- 
bitrarily curtailing  the  wage,  the  inadequacy  of  the 
town  government  in  handling  the  situation,  and 
'he  cupidity  of  the  I.  W.  \V.  leaders  in  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  fears,  the  ignorance,  the  inflamma- 
bility of  the  workers,  and  in  creating  a  "terrorism 
which  impregnated  the  whole  city  for  days."  Law- 
rence became  a  symbol.    It  stood  for  the  American 


I. 


••/ 


i 


'I 


I 


v 

i 

i 
1 

1 

1 

206  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

factory  town;  for  municipal  indifference  and  social 
neglect,  for  heterogeneity  in  population,  for  the 
tinder  pile  awaiting  the  incendiary  match. 

At  Little  Falls,  New  York,  a  strike  occurred  in 
the  textile  mills  in  October,  1912,  as  a  result  of  a 
reduction  of  wages  due  to  a  fifty-four  hour  law. 
No  organization  was  responsible  for  the  strike,  but 
no  sooner  had  the  operatives  walked  out  than  here 
also  the  I.  W.  \V.  appeared.  The  leaders  ordered 
every  striker  to  do  something  which  would  involve 
arrest  in  order  to  choke  the  local  jail  and  the  courts. 
The  state  authorities  investigating  the  situation 
reported  that  "all  of  those  on  strike  were  foreigners 
and  few,  if  any,  could  speak  or  understand  the  Eng- 
lish language,  complete  control  of  the  strike  being 
in  the  hands  of  the  L  W.  W." 

In  February,  1913,  about  15,000  employees  in 
the  rubber  works  at  Akron,  Ohio,  struck.  The  in- 
troduction of  machinery  into  the  manufacture  of 
automobile  tires  caused  a  reduction  in  the  piece- 
work rate  in  certain  shops.  One  of  the  companies 
posted  a  notice  on  the  10th  of  February  that  this 
reduction  would  take  effect  immediately.  No  time 
was  given  for  conference,  and  it  was  this  sudden 
arbitrary  act  which  precipitated  all  the  discontent 
lurking  for  a  long  time  in  the  background;  and  the 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    207 
employees  walked  out.    The  legislative  investigat- 
ing committee  reported  "there  was  practically  no 
organization  existing  among  the  rubber  employees 
when  the  strike  began.    A  small  local  of  the  Indus- 
trial Workers  of  the  World  comprised  of  between 
fifteen  and  fifty  mem^    -s  had  been  formed.  . 
Simultaneously  with  the  beginning  of  the  strike, 
organizers  of  the  I.  W.  W.  appeared  on  the  ground 
inviting  and  urging  the  striking  employees  to  unite 
with  their  organization."    Many  of  these  testified 
before  the  public  authorities  that  they  had  not 
joined  because  they  believed  in  the  preachings  of 
the  organization  but  because  "they  hoped  through 
collective  action  to  increase  their  wages  and  im- 
prove their  conditions  of  employment."    The  tac- 
tics of  the  strike  leaders  soon  alienated  the  public, 
which  had  at  first  been  inclined  towards  the  strikers, 
and  acts  of  violence  led  to  the  organization  of  a 
vigilance  committee  of  one  thousand  citizens  which 
warned  the  leaders  to  leave  town. 

In  February,  1913,  some  25,000  workers  in  the 
silk  mills  of  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  struck,  and 
here  again  the  I.  W.  W.  repeated  its  maneuvers. 
Sympathetic  meetings  took  place  in  New  York  and 
other  cities.  Daily  "experience  meetings"  were 
held  in  Paterson  and  all  sorts  of  devices  were 


l 


n : 


pu  a 


■r  ,  ! 


•/ 


808  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

invented  to  maintain  the  fervor  of  the  strikers. 
The  leaders  threatened  to  make  Paterson  a  "howl- 
ing  wilderness,"  an  "industrial  graveyard,"  and 
"to  wipe  it  oflf  the  map."    This  threat  naturally 
arrayed  the  citizens  against  the  strikers,  over  one 
thousand  of  whom  were  lodged  in  jail  before  the 
outbreak  was  over.     Among  the  five  ringleaders  ar- 
rested and  held  for  the  grand  jury  were  Elizabeth 
Guriey  Flynn  and  Patrick  Quinlan,  whose  trials 
attracted  wide  attention,     Elizabeth  Flynn,  an 
appealing  young  widow  scarcely  over  twenty-one, 
testified  that  she  had  begun  her  work  as  an  organ- 
izer at  the  age  of  sixteen,  that  she  had  not  incited 
strikers  to  violence  but  had  onl^     ivised  them  to 
picket  and  to  keep  their  hands         oeir  pockets, 
"so  that  detectives  could  not  p^  ues  in  them 

as  they  had  done  in  other  strikes.'  The  jury  dis- 
agreed and  she  was  discharged.  Quinlan,  an  un- 
usually attractive  young  man,  also  a  professional 
I.  W.  W.  agitator,  was  found  guilty  of  inciting  to 
violence  and  was  sentenced  to  a  long  term  of  im- 
prisonment.  After  serving  nine  months  he  was 
freed  because  of  a  monster  petition  signed  by  some 
20,000  sympathetic  persons  all  over  the  United 
States.  Clergj'men,  philanthropists,  and  promi- 
nent public  men,  were  among  the  signers,  as  well  as 


'i 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I,  W.  W.    209 

the  jurors  who  convicted  and  the  sheriff  who  locked 
up  the  defendant. 

These  cases  served  to  fix  further  public  atten- 
tion upon  the  nature  of  the  new  movement  and  the 
sort  of  revivalists  its  evangel  of  violence  was  pro- 
ducing.    Employers  steadfastly  refused  to  deal 
with  the  I.  W.  W.,  although  they  repeatedly  as- 
serted they  were  willing  to  negotiate  with  their  em- 
ployees themselves.     After  three  months  of  strike 
and  turmoil  the   mayor  of  Paterson  had   said: 
"The  fight  which  Paterson  is  making  is  the  fight  of 
the  nation.    Their  agitation  has  no  other  object  in 
view  but  to  establish  a  reign  of  terror  throughout 
the  United  States."    A  large  number  of  thoughtful 
people  all  over  the  land  were  beginning  to  share 
this  view. 

In  New  York  City  a  new  sort  of  agitation  was 
devised  in  the  winter  of  1913-14  under  the  cap- 
taincy of  a  young  man  who  quite  suddenly  found 
himself  widely  advertised.  Frank  Tannenbaum 
organized  an  "army  of  the  unemployed,"  com- 
mandeered Rutgers  Square  as  a  rendezvous,  Fifth 
•Vvenue  as  a  parade  ground,  and  churches  and 
parish  houses  as  forts  and  commissaries.  Several 
of  the  churches  were  voluntarily  opened  to  them, 
but  other  churches  they  attempted  to  enter  by 


f  • 


14 


i  if 


^  t 


1? 


210  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

storm.  In  March,  1914,  Tannenbaum  led  several 
score  into  the  church  of  St.  Alphonsus  while  mass 
was  being  celebrated.  Many  arrests  followed  this 
bold  attempt  to  emulate  the  French  Revolution- 
ists. Though  sympathizers  raised  $7500  bail  for 
the  ringleader,  Tannenbaum  loyally  refused  to  ac- 
cept it  as  long  as  any  of  his  "army"  remained  in 
jail.  Squads  of  his  men  entered  restaurants,  ate 
their  fill,  refused  to  pay,  and  then  found  their 
way  to  the  workhouse.  So  for  several  months 
a  handful  of  unemployed,  some  of  them  profes- 
sional unemployed,  held  the  headlines  of  the  met- 
ropolitan papers,  rallied  to  their  defense  sentimen- 
tal social  sympathizers,  and  succeeded  in  calling 
the  attention  of  the  public  to  a  serious  industrial 
condition. 

At  Granite  City,  Illinois,  another  instance  of 
unrest  occurred  when  several  thousand  laborers  in 
the  steel  mills,  mostly  Roumanians  and  Bulgarians, 
demanded  an  increase  in  wages.  When  the  whistle 
blew  on  the  appointed  morning,  they  gathered  at 
the  gates,  refused  to  enter,  and  continued  to  sh'^ 
"  Two  dollars  a  day ! "  Though  the  manager  fcarcu 
violence  and  posted  guards,  no  violence  was  offered. 
Suddenly  at  the  end  of  two  hours  the  men  quietly 
resumed  their  work,  and  the  management  believed 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    <iA 

the  trouble  was  over.  But  for  several  s'^ccessive 
mornings  this  maneuver  wis  repeated.  Strike 
breakers  were  then  sent  for.  For  a  week,  however, 
the  work  went  forward  as  usual.  The  order  for 
strike  breakers  was  countermanded.  Then  came 
a  continued  repetition  of  the  early  morning  strikes 
until  the  company  gave  way. 

Nor  were  the  subtler  methods  of  sabotage  for- 
gotten   in    these   demonstrations.      From    many 
places  came  reports  of  emery  dust  in  the  gearings 
of  expensive  machines.    Men  boasted  of  powdered 
soap  emptied  into  water  tanks  that  fed  boilers,  of 
kerosene  applied  to  belting,  of  railroad  switches 
that  had  been  tampered  with.     With  these  and 
many  similar  examples  before  them,  the  public 
became  convinced  that  the  mere  arresting  of  a  few 
leaders  was  futile.     A  mass  meeting  at  Ipswich, 
Massachusetts,  m  1913,  declared,  as  its  principle  of 
action,  "We  have  got  to  met  force  with  force," 
and  then  threatened  to  run  the  entire  local  I.  W. 
W.  group  out  of  town.    In  many  towns  vigilance 
committees  acted  as  eyes,  ears,  and  hands  for  the 
community.     When   the  community   refused   to 
remain  neutral,  the  contest  assumed  a  different 
aspect  and  easily  became  a  feud  between  a  small 
group  of  militants  and  the  general  public. 


f 


i 


"i  ! 


i 


^ 


F 'i' :. 
1:1  H 


't  > 


,;i-Hi 


iji 


I 


i|      I 


212  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

In  the  West  this  contest  assumed  its  most  aggres 
sive  form.    At  Spokane,  in  1910,  the  jail  was  soo 
filled,  and  sixty  prisoners  went  on  a  hunger  strik 
which  cost  several  lives.    In  the  lumber  mills  o 
Aberdeen,   South   Dakota,   explosions  and   riot 
occurred.     In  Hoquiam,  Washington,  a  twelve 
foot  stockade  surmounted  by  barbed  wire  entangle 
ments  failed  to  protect  the  mills  from  the  assault* 
of  strikers.    At  Gray's  Harbor,  Washington,  a  citi- 
zens' committee  cut  the  electric  light  wires  to 
darken  the  meeting  place  of  the  I.  W.  W.  and  then 
used  axe  handles  and  wagon  spokes  to  drive  the 
members  out  of  town.    At  Everett,  Washington,  a 
strike  in  the  shingle  mills  led  to  the  expulsion  of 
the  I.  W.  W.    The  leaders  then  called  for  volun- 
teers to  invade  Everett,  and  several  hundred  mem- 
bers sailed  from  Seattle.    They  were  met  at  the 
dock,  however,  by  a  large  committee  of  citizens 
and  were  informed  by  the  sheriff  that  they  would 
not  be  allowed  to  land.    After  some  parley,  tht 
invaders  opened  fire,  and  in  the  course  of  the  shoot- 
ing that  followed  the  slieriff  was  seriously  wound- 
ed, five  persons  were  killed,  and  many  were  in- 
jured. The  boat  and  its  small  invading  army  then 
returned  to  Seattle  without  making  a  landing 
at  Everett. 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    213 
The  I.  W.  W.  found  an  excuse  for  their  riotous 
action  in  the  refusal  of  communities  to  permit  them 
to  speak  in  the  streets  and  public  places.    This, 
they  claimed,  was  an  invasion  of  their  constitu- 
tional right  of  free  speech.     The  experience  of  San 
Diego  serves  as  an  example  of  their  "free  speech" 
campaigns.    In  1910,  I.  W.  W.  agitators  began  to 
hold  public  meetings  in  the  streets,  in  the  course  of 
which  theu"  language  increased  in  ferocity  until  the 
indignation  of  the  community  was  aroused.    An 
ordinance  was  then  passed  by  the  city  council  pro- 
hibiting street  speaking  within  the  congested  por- 
tions of  the  city,  but  allowing  street  meetings  in 
other  parts  of  the  city  if  a  permit  from  the  police 
department  were  first  obtained.    There  was,  how- 
ever, no  law  requiring  the  issue  of  such  a  permit, 
and  none  was  granted  to  the  agitators.    This  re- 
striction of  their  liberties  greatly  incensed  the  agita- 
tors, who  at  once  raised  the  cry  of  "free  speech" 
and  began  to  hold  meetings  in  defiance  of  the 
ordinance.    The  jail  was  soon  glutted  with  these 
apostles  of  riotous  speaking.     In  order  to  delay 
the  dispatch  of  the  court's  oven  rowded  calendar, 
every  one  demanded  a  jury  trial.     The  mayor  of 
the  town  then  received  a  telegram  from  the  general 
secretary  of  the  organization  which  disclosed  their 


■rS 


'i 


i, 


ii 


214  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

tactics:  "This  fight  will  be  continued  until  fre( 
speech  is  established  in  San  Diego  if  it  takes  twenty 
thousand  members  and  twenty  years  to  do  so.' 
The  national  membership  of  the  I.  W.  W.  had  beer 
drafted  as  an  invading  army,  to  be  a  constant  irri 
tation  to  the  city  until  it  surrendered.    The  police 
asserted  that  "there  are  bodies  of  men  leaving  all 
parts  of  the  country  for  San  Diego  "  for  the  purpose 
of  defying  the  city  authorities  and  overwhelming 
its  municipal  machinery.     A  committee  of  vigi- 
lantes  armed  with  "revolvers,  knives,  night-sticks, 
black  jacks,  and  black  snakes,"  supported  by  the 
local  press  and  commercial  bodies,  undertook  to 
run  the  unwelcome  guests  out  of  town.    That  this 
was  not  done  gently  is  clearly  disclosed  by  subse- 
quent official  evidence.    Culprits  were  loaded  into 
auto  trucks  at  night,  taken  to  the  county  line,  made 
to  kiss  the  flag,  sing  the  national  anthem,  run  the 
gauntlet  between  rows  of  vigilantes  provided  with 
cudgels  and,  after  thus  proving  their  patriotism 
under  duress,  were  told  never  to  return. 

"There  is  an  unwritten  law,"  one  of  the  local 
papers  at  this  time  remarked,  "that  permits  a  citi- 
zen to  avenge  his  outraged  honor.  There  is  an  un- 
written  law  that  permits  a  community  to  defend 
itself  by  any  means  in  its  power,  lawful  or  unlawful, 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM;  THE  I.  W.  W.    215 

against  any  evil  which  the  operation  of  the  written 
law  is  inadequate  to  oppose  or  must  oppose  by 
slow,  tedious,  and  unnecessarily  expensive  proceed- 
ings." So  this  municipal  homeopathy  of  curing  law- 
lessness with  lawlessness  received  public  sanction. 
With  the  declaration  of  war  against  Germany  in 
Apra,  1917,  hosti'ity  to  the  I.  W.  W.  on  the  part 
of  the  American  public  was  intensified.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  organization  opposed  war.  Their  leaflet 
War  and  the  Workers,  bore  this  legend: 


GENERAL  SHERMAN  SAID 
"WAR   IS   HELL" 

DON'T  GO  TO  HELL 

IN  OROKR  TO  OIVK  A  BUNCH  OF 

PIRATICAL 

PLUTOCRATIC 

PARASITES 

A  BIOOER  SLICE  OF  HEAVEN 


Soon  rumors  abounded  that  German  money  was 
being  used  to  aid  the  I.  W.  W.  in  their  plots.    In 


I 


I 


ili 


!i 


If 

I 

•■     f 

I    t 


ai 


•ij 


«16  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

Oklahoma,    Texas,    Illinois,    Kansas,   and   other 
States,  members  of  the  organization  were  arrested 
for  failure  to  comply  with  the  draft  law.    The  gov- 
ernors of  Oregon,  Washington,  Montana,  Idaho, 
and  Nevada  met  to  plan  laws  for  suppressing  the 
I.  W.  W.    Similar  legislation  was  urged  upon  Con- 
gress.   Senator  Taomas,  in  a  report  to  the  Senate, 
accused  th  j  I.  W.  W.  of  cooperating  with  German 
agents  in  the  copper  mines  and  harvest  fields  of  the 
West  by  inciting  the  laborers  to  strikes  and  to  the 
destruction  of  food  and  material.    Popular  opinion 
in  the  West  inclined  to  the  view  of  Senator  Poin- 
dexter  of  Washington  when  he  said  that  "most  of 
the  I.  W.  W.  leaders  are  outlaws  or  ought  to  be 
made  outlaws  because  of  their  oflScial  utterances, 
inflammatory  literature   and   acts  of   violence." 
Indeed,  scores  of  communities  in  1917  took  matters 
into  their  own  hands.    Over  a  thousand  I.  W.  W. 
strikers  in  the  copper  mines  of  Bisbee,  Arizona, 
were  loaded  into  freight  cars  and  sh'     ed  over  the 
state  line.    In  Billings,  Montana,  .    e  leader  was 
horsewhipped,  and  two  others  were  hanged  until 
they  were  unconscious.     In  Tulsa,  Oklahoma,  a 
group  of  seventeen  members   were  taken  from 
policemen,  thoroughly  flogged,  tarred,  feathered, 
and  driven  cut  of  town  by  vigilantes. 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    217 

The  Federal   Government,  after  an  extended 
inquiry  through  the  secret  service,  raided  the  De- 
troit headquarters  of  the  I.  W.  W.,  where  a  plot  to 
tie  up  lake  traffic  was  brewing.    The  Chicago  offices 
were  raided  some  time  later;  over  one  hundred  and 
sixty  leaders  of  the  organization  from  all  parts  of 
the  country  were  indicted  as  a  result  of  the  exami- 
nation of  the  wagon-load  of  papers  and  documents 
seized.     As  a  result,  166  indictments  were  returned. 
Of  these  99  defendants  were  found  guilty  by  the 
trial  jury,  16  were  dismissed  during  the  trial,  and 
51  were  dismissed  before  the  trial.     In  Cleveland, 
Buffalo,  and  other  lake  ports  similar  disclosures 
were  made,  and  everywhere  the  organization  fell 
under  popular  and  official  suspicion. 

In  many  other  portions  of  the  country  members 
of  the  I.  W.  W.  were  tried  for  conspiracy  under  the 
Federal  espionage  act.  In  January,  1919,  a  trial 
jury  in  Sacramento  found  46  defendants  guilty. 
The  offense  in  the  majority  of  these  cases  con- 
sisted in  opposing  military  service  rather  than  in 
overt  acts  against  the  Government.  But  in  May 
and  June,  1919,  the  country  was  startled  by  a  series 
of  bomb  outrages  aimed  at  the  United  States 
Attorney-General,  certain  Federal  district  judges, 
and  other  leading  public  personages,  which  were 


/ 


i 


.4 
I 


(,  .{ 


nB  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

evidently  the  result  of  centralized  planning  and 
were  t^v  cuted  by  members  of  the  I.  W.  W.,  aided 
very  fonsiderably  by  foreign  Bolshevists. 

In  sp;l    of  its  spectacular  warfare  and  its  mo- 
nop*M  '  o{    ewspaper  headlines,  the  I.  W.  W.  has 
nevii  been  rzumerically  strong.    The  first  conven- 
tion. L  Ja  1/1  pt  I  a  membership  of  60,000.    All  told,  the 
orgt  'iza'i .  I  has  iisued  over  200,000  cards  sinoe 
its  in.    \,v..  :i,  '  •     I ,  ;  total  never  constituted  its 
men.     r^jhip  .,t  ^-.y  given  time,  for  no  more  fluc- 
tuati.  g  grcup    ver  existed.    When  the  I.  W.  W. 
foste      a  s  rik.c  of  considerable  proportions,  the 
membership  rapidly  swells,  only  to  shrink  again 
when  the  strike  is  over.    This  temporary  member- 
ship consists  mostly  of  foreign  workmen  who  are 
recent  immigrants.     What  may  be  termed  the 
permanent  membership  is  difficult  to  estimate. 
In  1913  there  were  about  14,000  members.    In  1917 
the  membership  was  estimated  at  75,000.    Though 
this  is  probably  a  maximum  rather  than  an  aver- 
age, nevertheless  the  members  are  mostly  young 
men  whose  revolutionary  ardor  counterbalances 
their  want  in  numbers.    It  is,  moreover,  an  or- 
ganization that  has  a  wide  penumbra.     It  readily 
attracts  the  discontented,  the  unemployed,  the 
man  without  a  horizon.    In  an  instant  it  can  lay 


THE  NEW  TERRORISM:  THE  I.  W.  W.    219 

a  fire  and  put  an  entire  police  force  on  the  quivive. 
The  organization  has  always  been  in  financial 
straits.     The  source  of  its  power  is  to  he  sought 
elsewhere.    Financially  bankrupt  and  numerically 
unstable,   the  I.   W.  W.  relies  upon  the  brazen 
cupidity  of  its  stratagems  and  the  habitual  timor- 
ousness  of  society  for  its  power.     It  is  this  self- 
seeking  disregard  of  constituted  authority  that  has 
given  a  handful  of  bold  and  crafty  leaders  such 
prominence  in  the  recent  literature  of  fear.     Aid 
the  members  of  this  industrial  Ku  Hux  Klan,  these 
American  Bolsheviki,  assume  to  be  the  "conscious 
minority"  which  is  to  lead  the  ranks  of  labor  into 
the  Canaan  of  industrial  bliss. 


i 


CHAPTER  X 


LABOR    AND    POLITICS 


In  a  democracy  it  is  possible  for  organized  labor  to 
extend  its  influence  far  beyond  the  confines  of  a 
mere  trade  policy.  It  can  move  the  political  mech- 
anism  directly  in  proportion  to  its  capacity  to  en- 
list public  opinion.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
to  find  that  labor  is  eager  to  take  part  in  politics 
or  that  labor  parties  were  early  organized.  They 
were,  however,  doomed  to  failure,  for  no  working- 
man's  party  can  succeed,  except  in  isolated  locah"- 
ties,  without  the  cooperation  of  other  social  and 
political  forces.  Standing  alone  as  a  political  entity, 
labor  has  met  only  rebuff  and  defeat  at  the  hands 
of  the  American  voter. 

The  earlier  attempts  at  direct  political  action 
were  local.  In  Philadelphia  a  workingman's  par- 
ty was  organized  in  1828  as  a  result  of  the  disap- 
pointment of  the  Mechanics'  Union  at  its  failure 
to  achieve  its  ambitions  by  strikes.    At  a  public 


>     '% 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  221 

meeting  it  was  resolved  to  support  only  such  candi- 
dates for  the  legislature  and  city  council  as  would 
pledge  themselves  to  the  interests  of  "the  working 
classes. "    The  city  was  organized,  and  a  delegate 
convention  was  called  which  nominated  a  ticket  of 
thirty  candidates  for  city  and  county  oflBces.    But 
nineteen  of  these  nominees  were  also  on  the  Jack- 
son ticket,  and  ten  on  the  Adams  ticket;  and  both 
of  these  parties  used  the  legend  "Working  Man's 
Ticket, "  professing  to  favor  a  shorter  working  day. 
The  isolated  labor  candidates  received  only  from 
229  to  539  votes,  while  the  Jackson  party  vote 
ranged  from  3800  to  7000  and  the  Adams  party 
vote  from  2500  to  3800.    So  that  labor's  first  excur- 
sion into  politics   revealed  the  eagerness  of  the 
older  parties  to  win  the  labor  vote,  and  the  futility 
of  relying  on  a  separate  organization,  except  for 
propaganda  purposes. 

Preparatory  to  their  next  campaign,  the  working- 
men  organized  political  clubs  in  all  the  wards  of 
Philadelphia.  In  1829  they  nominate<l  thirty-two 
candidates  for  local  offices,  of  whom  nine  received 
the  endorsement  of  the  Federalists  and  three  that 
of  the  Democrats.  The  workingmen  fared  bet- 
ter in  this  election,  polling  nearly  2000  votes  in 
the  county  and  electing  sixteen  candidates.     So 


222 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


encouraged  were  they  by  this  success  that  they 
attempted  to  nominate  a  state  ticket,  but  the  domi- 
nant parties  were  too  strong.  In  1831  the  work- 
ingmen's  candidates,  who  were  not  endorsed  by 
the  older  parties,  received  less  than  400  votes  in 
Philadelphia.  After  this  year  the  party  vanished. 
New  York  also  early  had  an  illuminating  experi- 
ence in  labor  politics.  In  1829  the  workingmen 
of  the  city  launched  a  political  venture  under  the 
immediate  leadership  of  an  agitator  by  the  name 
of  Thomas  Skidmore.  Skidmore  set  forth  his  social 
panacea  in  a  book  whose  elongated  title  betrays 
his  secret:  The  Rights  of  Man  to  Property i  Being 
a  Proposition  to  Make  it  Equal  among  the  Adults  of 
the  Present  Generation;  and  to  Provide  for  its  Equal 
Transmission  to  Every  Individual  of  Each  Succeeding 
Generation,  on  Arriving  at  the  Age  of  Maturity. 
The  party  manifesto  began  with  the  startling  dec- 
laration that  "all  human  society,  our  own  as  well 
as  every  other,  is  constructed  radically  wrong." 
The  new  party  proposed  to  right  this  defect  by  an 
equal  distribution  of  the  land  and  by  an  elaborate 
system  of  public  education.  Associated  with  Skid- 
more were  Robert  Dale  Owen  and  Frances  Wright 
of  the  Free  Enquirer,  a  paper  advocating  all  sorts 
of  extreme  social  and  economic  doctrines.    It  was 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  223 

not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  new  party  was  at 
once  connected,  in  the  public  mind,  with  all  the 
erratic  vagaries  of  these  Apostles  of  Change.  It 
was  called  the  "Fanny  Wright  ticket"  and  the 
"Infidel  Ticket."  Every  one  forgot  that  it  aimed 
to  be  the  workingman's  ticket.  The  movement, 
however,  was  supported  by  The  Working  Man's 
Advocate,  a  new  journal  that  soon  reached  a 
wide  influence. 

There  now  appeared  an  eccentric  Quaker,  Rus- 
sell Comstock  by  name,  to  center  public  attention 
still  more  upon  the  new  party.  As  a  candidate 
for  the  legislature,  he  professed  an  alarmingly  ad- 
vanced position,  for  he  believed  that  the  State 
ought  to  establish  free  schools  where  handicrafts 
and  morals,  but  not  religion,  should  be  taught; 
that  husband  and  wife  should  be  equals  before  the 
law;  that  a  mechanics*  lien  and  bankruptcy  law 
should  be  passed;  and  that  by  wise  graduations  all 
laws  for  the  collection  of  debts  should  be  repealed. 
At  a  meeting  held  at  the  City  Hall,  for  the  further 
elucidation  of  his  "pure  Republicanism,"  he  was 
greeted  by  a  great  throng  but  was  arrested  for 
disturbing  the  peace.  He  received  less  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  votes,  but  his  words  went  far  to 
excite,  on  the  one  hand,  the  interest  of  the  laboring 


I 


r   «l 


'  I 


224  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

classes  in  reform,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  de- 
termination of  the  conservative  classes  to  defeat 
"a  ticket  got  up  openly  and  avowedly,"  as  one 
newspaper  said,  "in  opposition  to  all  banks,  in 
opposition  to  social  order,  in  opposition  to  rights 
of  property." 

Elections  at  this  time  lasted  three  days.  On  the 
first  day  there  was  genuine  alarm  at  the  large  vote 
cast  for  "the  Infidels."  Thoughtful  citizens  were 
importuned  to  go  to  the  polls,  and  on  the  second 
and  third  days  they  responded  in  sufficient  num- 
bers to  compass  the  defeat  of  the  entire  ticket, 
excepting  only  one  candidate  for  the  legislature. 

The  Workingman's  party  contained  too  many 
zealots  to  hold  together.  After  the  election  of  1829 
a  meeting  was  called  to  revise  the  party  platform. 
The  more  conservative  element  prevailed  and  omit- 
ted the  agrarian  portions  of  the  platform.  Skid- 
more,  who  was  present,  attempted  to  protest,  but 
his  voice  was  drowned  by  the  clamor  of  the  audi- 
ence. He  then  started  a  party  of  his  own,  which  he 
called  the  Original  Workingman's  party  but  which 
became  known  as  the  Agrarian  party.  The  major- 
ity endeavored  to  rectify  their  position  in  the  com- 
munity by  an  address  to  the  people.  "We  take 
this  opportunity,"  they  said,  "to  aver,  whatever 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  225 

may  be  said  to  the  contrary  by  ignorant  or  de- 
signing individuals  or  biased  presses,  that  we  have 
no  desire  or  intention  of  disturbing  the  rights 
of  property  in  individuals  or  the  public."  In  the 
meantime  Robert  Dale  Owen  and  Fanny  Wright 
organized  a  party  of  their  own,  endorsing  an  ex- 
treme form  of  state  paternalism  over  children. 
This  State  Guardianship  Plan,  as  it  was  called, 
aimed  to  "regenerate  America  in  a  generation" 
and  to  "make  but  one  class  out  of  the  many  that 
now  envy  and  despise  each  other." 

There  were,  then,  three  workingmen's  parties  in 
New  York,  none  of  which,  however,  succeeded  in 
gaining  an  influential  position  in  sUte  poliUcs. 
After  1830  all  these  parties  disappeared,  but  not 
without  leaving  a  legacy  of  valuable  experience. 
The  Working  Man's  Advocate  discovered  political 
wisdom  when  it  confessed  that  "whether  these 
measures  are  carried  by  the  formation  of  a  new 
party,  by  the  reform  of  an  old  one,  or  by  the  abol- 
ishment of  party  altogether,  is  of  comparative 
unimportance." 

In  New  England,  the  workingmer's  political 
endeavors  were  joined  with  those  of  the  farmers 
under  the  agency  of  the  New  England  Association 
of  Farmers,  Mechanics,  and  Workingmen.     This 


I' 


M 


I, 


L 


226 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


\: 


organization  was  initiated  in  1830  by  the  working- 
men  of  Woodstock,  Vermont,  and  their  journal,  the 
Working  Man's  Gazette,  became  a  medium  of  agi- 
tation which  affected  all  the  New  England  man- 
ufacturing towns  as  well  as  many  farming  com- 
munities. "Woodstock  meetings,"  as  they  were 
called,  were  held  everywhere  and  aroused  both 
workingmen  and  farmers  to  form  a  new  political 
party.  The  Springfield  Republican  summarized 
the  demands  of  the  new  party  thus: 


"?» 


The  avowed  objects  generally  seem  to  be  to  abolish 
imprisonment  for  debt,  the  abolishment  of  litigation, 
and  in  lieu  thereof  the  settlement  of  disputes  by  refer- 
ence to  neighbors;  to  establish  some  more  equal  and 
universal  system  of  public  education;  to  diminish  the 
salaries  and  extravagance  of  public  officers;  to  support 
no  men  for  offices  of  public  trust,  but  farmers,  mechan- 
ics, and  what  the  party  call  "working  men";  and  to 
elevate  the  character  of  this  class  by  mental  instruc- 
tion and  mental  improvement.  .  .  .  Much  is  said 
against  the  wealth  and  aristocracy  of  the  land,  their 
influence,  and  the  undue  influence  of  lawyers  and  other 
professional  men.  .  .  .  The  most  of  these  objects 
appear  very  well  on  paper  and  we  believe  they  are 
already  sustained  by  the  good  sense  of  the  people.  .  .  . 
What  is  most  ridiculous  about  this  party  is,  that  in 
many  places  where  the  greatest  noise  is  made  about  it. 
the  most  indolent  and  most  worthless  persons,  men  of 
no  trade  or  useful  occupation  have  taken  the  lead. 


LABOR  AI^  POLITICS  2£7 

We  cannot  of  course  answer  for  the  character  for  in- 
dustry of  many  places  where  this  party  is  agitated: 
but  we  believe  the  great  body  of  our  own  community, 
embracing  every  class  and  profession,  may  justly  be 
called  workingmen:  nor  do  we  believe  enough  can  be 
found  who  are  not  such,  to  make  even  a  decent  party 
of  drones. 

In  the  early  thirties  many  towns  and  cities  in 
Massachusetts,  Vermont,  Maine,  Connecticut, 
and  Rhode  Island  elected  workingmen's  candidates 
to  local  o£Sces,  usually  with  the  help  of  small 
tradespeople.  In  1833  and  1834  the  workingmen 
of  Massachusetts  put  a  state  ticket  in  the  field 
which  polled  about  2000  votes,  and  in  Boston  a 
workingman's  party  was  organized,  but  it  did  not 
gather  much  momentum  and  soon  disappeared. 

These  local  and  desultory  attempts  at  forming  a 
separate  labor  party  failed  as  partisan  movements. 
The  labor  leader  proved  an  inefficient  amateur 
when  matched  against  the  shrewd  and  experienced 
party  manipulator;  nor  was  there  a  sufficient  class 
homogeneity  to  keep  the  labor  vote  together;  and, 
even  if  it  had  so  been  united,  there  were  not  enough 
labor  votes  to  make  a  majority.  So  the  labor  can- 
didate had  to  rely  on  the  good  will  of  other  classes 
b  order  to  win  his  election.  And  this  support 
was  not  forthcoming.    Americans  have,  thus  far, 


I. 


i  "(I 


:t. 


I 


»    4 


228  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

always  looked  with  suspicion  upon  a  party  that 
represented  primarily  the  interests  of  only  one 
class.  This  tendency  shows  a  healthy  instinct 
founded  upon  the  fundamental  conception  of 
society  as  a  great  unity  whose  life  and  progress 
depend  upon  the  freedom  of  all  its  diverse  parts. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  assume,  as  some  observers 
have  done,  that  these  petty  political  excursions 
wrecked  the  labor  movement  of  that  day.  It  was 
perfectly  natural  that  the  laborer,  when  he  awoke 
to  the  possibilities  of  organization  and  found  him- 
self possessed  of  unlimited  political  rights,  should 
seek  a  speedy  salvation  in  the  ballot  box.  He  took, 
by  impulse,  the  partisan  shortcut  and  soon  found 
himself  lost  in  the  slough  of  party  intrigue.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  should  not  be  concluded  that 
these  intermittent  attempts  to  form  labor  parties 
were  without  political  significance.  The  politician 
is  usually  blind  to  every  need  except  the  need  of  his 
party;  and  the  one  permanent  need  of  his  party  is 
votes.  A  demand  backed  by  reason  will  usually 
find  him  inert;  a  demand  backed  by  votes  gal- 
vanizes him  into  nervous  attention.  When,  there- 
fore, it  was  apparent  that  there  was  a  labor  vote, 
even  though  a  small  one,  the  demands  of  this 
vote  were  not  to  be  ignored,  especially  in  States 


.«    1 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  229 

where  the  parties  were  well  balanced  and  the 
scale  was  tipped  by  a  few  hundred  votes.  With- 
in a  few  decades  after  the  political  movement 
began,  many  States  had  passed  lien  laws,  had 
taken  active  measures  to  establish  efficient  free 
schools,  had  abolished  imprisonment  for  debt,  had 
made  legislative  inquiry  into  factory  conditions, 
and  had  recognized  the  ten-hour  day.  These  had 
been  the  leading  demands  of  organized  labor,  and 
they  had  been  brought  home  to  the  public  con- 
science, in  part  at  least,  by  the  influence  of  the 
workingmen's  votes. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  Civil  War  that  labor 
achieved  sufficient  national  homogeneity  to  at- 
tempt seriously  the  formation  of  a  national  party. 
In  the  light  of  later  events  it  is  interesting  to  sketch 
briefly  the  development  of  the  political  power  of 
the  workingman.  The  National  Labor  Union  at 
its  congress  of  1866  resolved  "that,  so  far  as  po- 
litical action  is  concerned,  each  locality  should  be 
governed  by  its  own  policy,  whether  to  run  an  in- 
dependent ticket  of  workingmen,  or  to  use  political 
parties  already  existing,  but  at  all  events  to  cast 
no  vote  except  for  men  pledged  to  the  interests  of 
labor."  The  issue  then  seemed  clear  enough.  But 
six  yturs  later  the  Labor  Reform  party  struck  out 


I 

i 


I 


J 


if  i 


890  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABG 

on  an  independent  course  and  held  its  first  an( 
only  national  convention.  Seventeen  States  wen 
represented. '  The  Labor  party,  however,  had  ye 
to  leam  how  hardly  won  are  independence  an( 
unity  in  any  political  organization.  Rumors  o 
pernicious  intermeddling  by  the  Democratic  am 
Republican  politicians  were  afloat,  and  it  wa 
charged  that  the  Pennsylvania  delegates  had  comi 
on  passes  issued  by  the  president  of  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Railroad.  Judge  David  Davis  of  Illinois 
then  a  member  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
was  nominated  for  President  and  Governor  Joe 
Parker  of  New  Jersey  for  Vice-President.  Botl 
declined,  however,  and  Charles  O'Conor  of  Nev 
York,  the  candidate  of  "the  Straight-Out  Demo 
crats, "  was  named  for  President,  but  no  nomina 
tion  was  made  for  Vice-President.  Considering 
the  subsequent  phenomenal  growth  of  the  laboi 
vote,  it  is  worth  noting  in  passing  that  O'Conoi 
received  only  29,489  votes  and  that  these  em 
braced  both  the  labor  and  the  so-called  "straight' 
Democratic  strength. 

For  some  years  the  political  labor  movement 


'  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  this  first  National  Labor  Party 
Convention  a  motion  favoring  government  ownership  and  Iht 
referendum  was  voted  down. 


h     i 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  JSl 

lost  its  independent  character  and  was  absorbed 
by  the  Greenback  party  which  oflFered  a  meeting- 
ground  for  discontented  farm jrs  and  restless  work- 
ingmen.    In  1876  the  party  nominated  for  Presi- 
dent the  venerable  Peter  Cooper,  who  received 
about  eighty  thousand  votes  —  most  of  them  prob- 
ably cast  by  farmers.    During  this  time  the  leaders 
of  the  labor  movement  were  serving  a  political  ap- 
prenticeship and  were  learning  the  value  of  co- 
operation.    On  February  22,  1878,  a  conference 
held  at  Toledo,  Ohio,  including  eight  hundred 
delegates  from  twenty-eight  States,  perfected  an 
alliance  between  the  Labor  Reform  and  Greenback 
parties  and  invited  all  "patriotic  citizens  to  unite 
in  an  effort  to  secure  financial  reform  and  industrial 
emancipation."    Financial  reform  meant  the  adop- 
tion of  the  well-known  greenback  free  silver  policy. 
Industrial  emancination  involved  the  enactment 
of  an  eight-hour  law;  the  inspection  of  workshops, 
factories,  and  mines;  the  regulation  of  interstate 
commerce;  a  graduated  federal  income  tax;  the 
prohibition  of  the  importation  of  alien  contract 
labor;  the  forfeiture  of  the  unused  portion  of  the 
princely  land  grants  to  railroads;  and  the  direct 
participation  of  the  people  in  government.    These 
fundamental  issues  were  included  in  the  demands 


I  1 , 


/ 


't  I 


232  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

of  subsequent  labor  and  populist  parties,  and  some 
of  them  were  bequeathed  to  the  Progressive  party 
of  a  later  date.  The  convention  was  thus  a  fore- 
runner of  genuine  reform,  for  its  demands  were 
based  upon  industrial  needs.  For  the  moment  it 
made  a  wide  popular  appeal.  In  the  state  elections 
of  1878  about  a  million  votes  were  polled  by  the 
party  candidates.  The  bulk  of  these  were  farmers' 
votes  cast  in  the  Middle  and  Far  West,  though  in 
the  East,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  New  York, 
Maine,  and  New  Jersey  cast  a  considerable  vote 
for  the  party. 

With  high  expectations  the  new  party  entered 
the  campaign  of  1880.  It  had  over  a  dozen  mem- 
bers in  Congress,  active  organizations  in  nearly 
every  State,  and  ten  thousand  local  clubs.  General 
James  B.  Weaver,  the  presidential  nominee  of  the 
party,  was  the  first  candidate  to  make  extensive 
campaign  journeys  into  distant  sections  of  the 
country.  His  energetic  canvass  netted  him  only 
308,578  votes,  most  of  which  came  from  the  West. 
The  party  was  distinctly  a  farmers'  party.  In 
1884,  it  nominated  the  lurid  Ben  Butler  who  had 
been,  according  to  report,  "ejected  from  the  Demo- 
cratic party  and  booted  out  of  the  Republican." 
His  demagogic  appeals,  however,  brought  him  not 


LABOi  AND  POUTICS  233 

much  more  than  half  as  many  votes  as  the  party 
received  at  the  preceding  election,  and  helped  to 
end  the  political  career  of  the  Greenbackers. 

With  the  power  of  the  farmers  on  the  wane,  the 
balance  began  to  shift.    There  now  followed  a  num- 
ber of  attempts  to  organize  labor  in  the  Union 
Labor  party,  the  United  Labor  party,  the  Pro- 
gressive Labor  party,  the  American  Reform  party, 
and  the  Tax  Reformers.    There  were  still  numerous 
farmers'  organizations  such  as  the  Farmers'  Al- 
liance, the  Anti-Monopolists,  the  Homesteaders, 
and  others,  but  they  were  no  ion^<  r  the  dominant 
force.     Under  the  stimulus  of  tiu-  labor  unicns, 
delegates  representing  the  Knights  ■>f  Labor,  the 
Grangers,  the  Anti-Monopolists,  am  other  farm- 
ers' organizations,  met  in  Cincinnati  on  February 
22,  1887,  and  organized  the  National  Union  Labor 
party. '    The  following  May  the  party  held  its  only 
nominating  convention.    Alson  J.  Streeter  of  Illi- 
nois was  named  for  President  and  Samuel  Evans  of 
Texas  for  Vice-President.     The  platform  of  the 
party  was  based  upon  the  prevalent  economic  and 
political  discontent.    Farmers  were  overmortgaged, 
laborers  were  underpaid,  and  the  poor  were  growing 
poorer,  while  the  rich  were  daily  growing  richer. 

'  McKee,  National  Contention*  and  Platformn,  p.  251. 


■»  r 


v«; 


hi    ! 


I   \ 


«4  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

"The  paramount  issues, "  the  new  party  declared, 
"are  the  abolition  of  usury,  monopoly,  and  trusts, 
and  we  denounce  the  Republican  and  Democrat- 
ic parties  for  creating  and  perpetuating  these  mon- 
strous evils." 

In  the  meantime  Henry  George,  whose  Progress 
and  Poverty  had  made  a  profound  impression  upon 
public  thought,  had  become  in  1886  a  candidate  for 
mayor  of  New  York  City,  and  polled  the  phenome- 
nal  total  of  68,110  votes,  while  Theodore  Roose- 
velt, the  Republicau  candidate,  received  60,435, 
and  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  the  successful  Democratic 
candidate,  polled  90,552.    The  evidence  of  popular 
support  which  attended  Henry  George's  brief  po- 
litical career  was  the  prelude  to  a  national  effort 
which  culminated  in  the  formation  of  the  United 
Labor  party.    Its  platform  was  similar  to  that  of 
the  Union  party,  except  that  the  single  tax  now 
made  its  appearance.    This  method  contemplated 
the  "taxation  of  land  according  to  its  value  and 
not  according  to  its  area,  to  devote  to  common  use 
and  benefit  those  values  which  arise,  not  from  the 
exertion  of  the  individual,  but  from  the  growth  of 
society,"  and  the  abolition  of  all  taxes  on  industry 
and  its  products.     But  it  was  apparent  from  the 
similarity  of  their  platforms  and  the  geographical 


LABOR  AND  POUTICS  2S5 

distribution  of  their  candidates  that  the  two  labor 
parties  were  competing  for  the  same  vote.  At  a 
conference  held  in  Chicago  to  effect  a  union,  how- 
ever,  the  Union  Labor  party  insisted  on  the  com- 
plete effacement  of  the  other  ticket  and  the  single 
taxers  refused  to  submit.  In  the  election  which 
followed,  the  Union  Labor  party  received  about 
147,000  votes,  largely  from  the  South  and  West 
and  evidently  the  old  Greenback  vote,  while  the 
United  party  polled  almost  no  votes  outside  of 
Illinois  and  New  York.  Neither  party  survived 
the  result  of  this  election. 

In  December,  1889,  committees  representing 
the  Knights  of  Labor  and  the  Farmers*  Alliance 
met  in  St.  Louis  to  come  to  some  agreement  on 
political  policies.  Owing  to  the  single  tax  predilec- 
tion of  the  Knights,  the  two  organizations  were 
unable  to  enter  into  a  close  union,  but  they  never- 
theless did  agree  that  "the  legislative  committees 
of  both  organizations  [would]  art  in  concert  before 
Congress  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  enactment 
of  laws  in  harmony  with  their  demands."  Thvs 
coiipcration  was  a  forerunner  of  the  People's  party 
or,  as  it  was  commonly  called,  the  Populist  party, 
the  largest  third  party  that  had  taken  the  field 
since  the  Civil  War.    Throughout  the  West  and  the 


f   I 


I 


'  h 


*    1- 


n 

ll      : 


236  THE  ARMffiS  OF  LABOR 

South  political  conditions  now  were  feverish.    Old 
party  majorities  were  overturned,  and  a  new  type 
of  Congressman  invaded  Washington.    When  the 
first  national  convention  of  the  People's  party  met 
in  Omaha  on  July  2,  1892,  the  outlook  was  bright. 
General  Weaver  was  nominated  for  President  and 
James  G.   Field  of  Virginia  for  Vice-President. 
The  platform  rehabilitated  Greenbackism  in  co- 
gent phrases,   demanded  government  control  of 
railroads  and  telegraph  and  telephone  systems,  the 
reclamation  of  land  held  by  corporations,  an  in- 
come tax,  tlw  free  coinage  of  silver  and  gold  "at 
the  present  legal  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one,"  and  postal 
savings  banks.     In  a  .series  of  resolutions  which 
were  not  a  part  of  the  platform  but  were  neverthe- 
iejw  "exprpssive  of  th**  sentiment  of  this  conven- 
tion. ■  the  party  .Jeolured  itself  in  sympathy  "with 
th*"  efforts  of  organized  workingmen  to  shorten  the 
hours  of  laber";  it  condemned  "the  fallacy  of  pn)- 
ti^ting  American  labor  under  the  present  system, 
whiih  ojx-ns  our  |>orts  to  the  pauper  and  criminal 
chfises  of  the  worl«l  and  crowds  out  our  wage- 
earners";  and  it  opposetl  the  Pinkerton  .system  of 
capitalistic  espionage  as  "a  menace  to  our  liber- 
ties."   The  |)arty  formally  declan.l  it.s«.|f  to  Ik-  h 
"union  of  the  labor  fortvs  of  the  Tnited  States," 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  «87 

for  "the  interests  of  rural  and  city  labor  are  the 
same;  their  enemies  identical." 

These  national  movements  prior  to  1896  are 
not,  hov'ever,  an  adequate  index  of  the  political 
strength  of  labor  in  partisan  endeavor.    Organized 
labor  was  more  of  a  power  in  local  and  state  ••lec- 
tions, perhaps  because  in  these  cases  its  pressure 
was  more  direct,  perhaps  because  it  was  unable  to 
cope  with  the  great  national  organization  of  the 
older  parties.    During  these  years  of  effort  to  gain 
a  footing  in  the  Federal  Government,  there  are 
numerous  examples  of  the  success  of  the  hihor 
party  in  state  elections.    As  early  as  1872  the  labor 
reformers  nominated  state  tickets  in  Pennsylvania 
and  Connecticut.    In  1875  they  nominated  Wen- 
dell Phillips  for  Governor  of  Ma.ssachusf^ts.     In 
1878,  in  coalition   with   the  Greenbackers,  they 
elected  many  state  officers  throughout  the  West. 
Ten  years  later,  when  the  Union  l^bor  party  was 
at  its  height,  labor  candidates  were  succe.ssful  in 
several  municipalities.    In  1888  labor  tickets  were 
nominated    in    many  Western    States,    includiiif,' 
Colorado.  Indiana,  Kansas.  Minnesota.  Michigan. 
Missouri,  Nebraska.  Ohio,  and  Wi.sconsin.  Of  these 
Kansas  cast  the  largest  labor  vote,  with  nearly 
36,000,  and  Missouri  came  next  with  15,400.     In 


li 


(  > 


m 


I 


lU    t 


838  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

the  East,  however,  the  showing  of  the  party  in  state 
elections  was  far  less  impressive. 

In    California    the  political   labor   movement 
achieved  a  singular  prominence.    In  1877  the  labor 
situation  in  San  Francisco  became  acute  because  of 
the  prevalence  of  unemployment.    Grumblings  of 
dissatisfaction  soon  gave  way  to  parades  and  infor- 
mal meetings  at  which  imported  Chinese  labor  and 
the  rich  "nobs, "  the  supposed  dual  cause  of  all  the 
trouble,  were  denounced  in  lurid  language.    The 
agitation,  however,  was  formless  until  the  necessary 
leader  appeared  in  Dennis  Kearney,  a  native  of 
Cork  County,  Ireland.    For  fourteen  years  he  had 
been  a  sailor,  had  risen  rapidly  to  first  officer  of  a 
clipper  ship,  and  then  had  settled  in  San  Francisco 
as  a  drayman.    He  was  temperate  and  industrious 
in  his  personal  life,  and  possessed  a  clear  eye,  a 
penetrating  voice,  the  vocabulary  of  one  versed 
in  the  crude  socialistic  pamphlets  of  his  day,  and, 
in  spito  of  certain  domineering  habits  bred  in  the 
sailor,  the  winning  graces  of  his  nationality. 

Kearney  appeared  at  meetings  on  the  vacant  lohj 
known  as  the  "sand  lot^,'  in  front  of  the  City  Hall 
of  San  Francisco,  and  advised  the  discontented 
ones  to  "  wrest  the  government  froni  the  hands  of 
the  rich  and  place  it  in  those  of  the  people."    On 


m 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  sso 

September  12.  1877,  he  rallied  a  group  of  unem- 
ployed around  hin.  and  organized  the  Working- 
man  s  Trade  and  Labor  Union  of  San  Francisco. 
On  the  5th  of  October,  at  a  great  pubhc  meeting, 
the  Workmgman's  party  of  Cahfomia  was  formed 
and  Kearney  was  elected  president.    The  platform 
adopted  by  the  party  proposed  to  place  the  govern- 
ment m  the  hands  of  the  people,  to  get  rid  of  the 
Chmese,  to  destroy  the  money  power,  to  "provide 
decently  for  the  poor  and  unfortunate,  the  weak 
and  the  helpless."  and  "to  elect  none  but  com- 
petent workingmen  and  their  friends  to  any  office 
whatever    .  .  .     When  we  have  10.000  members 
we  shall  have  the  sympathy  and  support  of  20  000 
other  workingmen.     This  party."  concluded  the 
pronouncement,  "will  exhaust  all  peaceable  means 
of  attammg  its  ends,  but  it  will  not  be  denied  jus- 
tice, when  it  has  the  power  to  enforce  it.     It  will 
encourage  no  riot  or  outrage,  but  it  will  not  volun- 
teer to  repress  or  put  down  or  arrest  or  prosecute 
the  hungry  and  impatient,  who  manifest  their  ha- 
tred of  the  Chinamen  by  a  crusade  against  'John  ' 
or  thost^  who  employ  him.    Let  those  who  raisL 
the  storm  by  their  selfishness,  suppress  it  them- 
**lve.s.     If  they  dare  raise   the   devil,   let  them 
meet  him  face  to  face.    We  will  not  help  them  " 


I'  i. 


I 


l-^v 


240  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

In  advocating  these  views,  Kearaey  held  meeting 
after  meeting,  each  rhetorically  more  violent  than 
the  last,  until  on  the  3d  of  November  he  was  ar- 
rested. This  martyrdom  in  the  cause  of  labor 
increased  his  power,  and  when  he  was  released 
he  was  drawn  by  his  followers  in  triumph  through 
the  streets  on  one  of  his  own  drays.  His  lan- 
guage became  more  and  more  extreme.  He  blud- 
geoned the  "thieving  politicians"  and  the  "blood- 
sucking capitalists,"  and  he  advocated  "judicious 
hanging"  and  "discretionary  shooting."  The  City 
Council  passed  an  ordinance  intended  to  gag  him; 
the  legislature  enacted  an  extremely  harsh  riot 
act;  a  body  of  volunteers  patrolled  the  streets  of 
the  city ;  a  committee  of  safety  was  organized.  On 
January  5,  1878,  Kearney  and  a  nunil)er  of  as- 
sociates were  indicted,  arrested,  and  released  on 
bail.  When  the  trial  jury  acquitted  Kearney,  what 
may  be  called  the  terrorism  of  the  movement  at- 
tained its  height,  but  it  fortunately  spent  itself  in 
violent  adjectives. 

The  Workingman's  party,  however,  electetl  i 
workingman  mayor  of  San  Francisco,  joined  forces 
with  the  (Irangers,  and  elected  a  majority  of  the 
members  of  the  state  constitutional  convention 
which  met  in  Sacramento  on  September  28,  1878 


li 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  241 

This  was  a  notable  triumph  for  a  third  party.   The 
framing  of  a  new  constitution  gave  this  coalition  of 
farmers  and  workingmen  an  unusual  opportunity 
to  assail  the  evils  which  they  declared  infested  the 
SUte.    The  instrument  which  they  drafted  bound 
the  state  legislature  with  numerous  restrictions  and 
made  lobbying  a  felony;  it  reorganized  the  courts, 
placed  mnumerable  limitations  upon  corporations, 
forbade  the  loaning  of  the  credit  or  property  of  the 
State  to  corporations,  and  placed  a  state  commis- 
sion m  charge  of  the  railroads,  which  had  been  per- 
niciously active  in  state  politics.     Alas  for  these 
visions  of  reform!    A  few  years  after  the  adoption 
of  this  new  constitution  by  California.  Hul>ert  H. 
Bancroft  wrote: 

Those  objects  which  it  particuhiHy  aimed  at.  it  failed 
toachieve.  1  he  effect  upon  cor,H.rati«ns  disappointed 
lUauthors  and  supporters.  Many  of  then,  were  strong 
enough  still  to  defy  state  power  and  evade  .state  laws 
in  protecting  their  interests,  and  this  thev  di.l  without 
*ruple.  The  relation  of  capital  and  labor  is  even 
more  strained  than  before  the  constitution  was  adopt- 
ed Capital  so(,n  recoxered  from  a  temporarv  intimi- 
aation.  .  .  .     Labor  still  »nea.sy  was  still  subject  to 

I  ^  inexorable  law   of  .supply  an.l  <|e„,und.     Le.ns- 
iatures  were  still  to  be  approached   by  agents 

i  ^,   ^   ^^-^   f "   r")loycd   in   digging,   and    gra^J^ 
mg.    The  state  board  of  railroa*!  Commissioners  was  a 
III 


248 


THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 


if     t... 


■t  I 


} 

;     5 

1*-. 

- 

\ 

.  1 

1 

.   1 

useless  expense,  .  .  .  being  as  wax  in  the  hands  of  tb( 
companies  it  was  set  to  watch.' 

After  the  collapse  of  the  Populist  party,  there  ii 
to  be  discerned  in  labor  politics  a  new  departure 
due  primarily  to  the  attitude  of  the  American  Fed 
eration  of  Labor  in  partisan  matters,  and  second 
arily  to  the  rise  of  political  socialism.  A  social 
istic  party  deriving  its  support  almost  wholly  froQ 
foreign-bom  workmen  had  appeared  in  a  few  of  th< 
lar^e  cities  in  1877,  but  it  was  not  until  1892  that  s 
national  party  was  organized,  and  not  until  aftei 
the  collapse  of  Populism  that  it  assumed  sonu 
political  importance. 

In  August,  1892,  a  Socialist-Labor  convention 
which  was  held  in  New  York  City  nominated 
candidates  for  President  and  Vice-President  and 
adopted  a  platform  that  contained,  besides  the 
familiar  economic  demands  of  socialism,  the  rath' 
er  unusual  suggestion  that  the  Presidency,  Vice- 
Presidency,  and  Senate  of  the  United  States  be 
abolished  and  that  an  executive  board  be  estab- 
lished "whose  members  are  to  be  elected,  and 
may  at  any  time  be  recalled,  by  the  House  of 
Representatives,  as  the  only  legislative  body,  the 
States  and  municipalities  to  adopt  corresponding 

■  Works  (vol.  xxxv):  Hiitory  of  California,  vol.  vii,  p.  404. 


\t 


ill 

■J 


>t 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  243 

•mendments  to  their  constitutions  and  statutes. 
Under  the  title  of  the  Soeiahst-Labor  party,  this 
ticket  polled  21.532  votes  in  189^,  and  in  1896 
36.373  votes.  * 

In  1897 the  inevitable spHt  occurred  in  theSocial- 
1st  ranks.   Eugene  V.  Debs,  the  radical  labor  leader 
who.  as  president  of  the  American  Railway  Union* 
had  directed  the  Pullman  strike  and  had  become  a 
martyr  to  the  radical  cause  through  his  imprison- 
ment  for  violating  the  orders  of  a  Federal  Court 
organized  the  Social-Democratic  party.     In  1900 
Debs  was  nominated  for  President,  and  Job  Harri- 
man.  representing  the  older  wing,  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent.    The  ticket  polled  94,864  votes.    TheSocial- 
ist-Labor  party  nominated  a  ticket  of  their  own 
which  received  only  33,432  votes.    Eventuallv  this 
party  shrank  to  a  mere  remnant,  while  the  Social 
Democratic  party  became  generally  known  as  the 
Socialist  party.     Debs  became  their  candidate  in 
three  successive  elections.    In  1904  and  1908  his 
vote  hovered  around  400,000.    In  1910  congres- 
sional and  local  elections  spurred  the  Socialists 
to  hope  for  a   million    votes  in    1912  but   they 
fell  somewhat    short   of   this    mark.      Debs   re- 
ceived  901.873  votes,  the  largest  number  which  a 
Socialist  candidate  has  ever  yet  received.    Benson 


^--  ^^ 


i;  oi  ♦ 


•I! 


1; 


244  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

the  presidential  candidate  in  1916,  received  590 
579  votes. ' 

In  the  meantime,  the  influence  of  the  Socialis 
labor  vote  in  particular  locah'ties  vastly  increasec 
In  1910  Milwaukee  elected  a  Socialist  mayor  by 
plurality  of  seven  thous.-nd,  sent  Victor  Berger  i 
Washington  as  the  first  Socialist  Congressman,  am 
elected  labor-union  members  as  five  of  the  twelv 
Socialist  councilnien,  thu  >  revealing  the  sympath; 
of  the  working  class  for  1  he  cause.  On  January  1 
1912,  over  three  hundred  towns  and  cities  had  om 
or  more  Socialist  oflScers.  The  estimated  Socialis 
vote  of  these  localities  was  1,500,000.  The  103! 
Socialist  oflScirs  included  56  mayors,  205  aldermci 
and  councilmen,  and  148  school  officers.  This  woj 
not  a  sectional  vote  but  represented  New  Englanc 
and  the  far  West,  the  oldest  commonwealths  and 
the  newest,  the  North  and  the  South, and  cities  filled 
with  foreign  workingmen  as  well  as  staid  towns 
controlled  by  retired  farmers  and  shopkeepers. 

When  the  Unit< d  States  entered  the  Great  War, 
the  Socialist  party  became  a  reservoir  for  all  the 
unsavory  disloyalties  loosened  by  the  shock  of  the 

■  The  Socialist  vote  is  stated  differently  by  McKee,  Nationd 
Conrentiona  and  Plntformn.  The  above  figures,  to  1918,  arc  taken 
from  Stanwood's  flislory  of  the  Presidency,  and  for  1914  and  IW 
from  the  F^'orU  Almanae. 


W.i 


\i 


f.f 


i  I 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  245 

great  conflict.    Pacifists  and  pro-Germans  found  a 
common  refuge  under  its  red  banner.    In  the  New 
York  mayoralty  elections  in  1917  these  Socialists 
cast  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  votes,  and  in  the  Wis- 
consm  senatorial  election  in  1918  Victor  Berger 
their  standard-bearer,  swept  Milwaukee,  carried 
seven  counties,  and  polled  over  one  hundred  thou- 
sand  votes.    On  the  other  hand,  a  Jarge  number  of 
American  Socialists,  under  the  leadership  of  Wil- 
ham  English  Walling  and  John  Spargo.  vigorously 
espoused  the  national  cause  and  subordinated  their 
economic  and  political  theories  to  their  loyalty. 

The  Socialists   have   repeatedly   attempted   to 
make  oflicial  inroads  upon  organized  labor.    They 
have  the  sympathy  of  the  I.  W.  W.,  the  remnant  of 
the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  the  more  radical  trades 
unions,  but  from  the  American  Federation  of  La- 
bor they  have  met  only  rebuff.     A  numl,er  of  state 
federations,  especially  in  the  Middle  West,  not  a 
few  city  centrals,  and  some  sixteen  national  unions 
have  officially  approved  of  the  Socialist  programme, 
but  the  Federation  has  consistently  refused  such 
an  endorsement. 

The  political  tactics  assumed  by  the  Federation 
discountenance  a  distinct  labor  party  movement, 
as  long  as  the  old  parties  are  willing  to  subserve  the 


MICROCOPY   RfSOlUTION   TEST   CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


145 

150 


136 


2j8      1 2^ 

!-■     12.2 

1.8 


APPLIED  IIVHGE 


'613  tail   Mam   Slrwt 

RochMtef    N..   York        U609       uS* 

(7'6)   *B2  '  0300  -  Phon. 

(716)  28«-59a9  -To, 


11^  i<f 


'■i 


846  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

ends  of  the  unions.    This  self-restraint  does  not 
mean  that  the  Federation  is  not  "in  politics."    On 
the  contrary,  it  is  constantly  vigilant  and  aggres- 
sive and  it  engages  every  year  in  political  maneu- 
vers without,  however,  having  a  partisan  organi- 
zation of  its  own.    At  its  annual  conventions  it  has 
time  and  again  urged  local  and  state  branches  to 
scrutinize  the  records  of  legislative  candidates  and 
to  see  that  only  friends  of  union  labor  receive  the 
union  laborer's  ballot.    In  1897  it  "firmly    nd  un- 
equivocally" favored  "the  independent  use  of  the 
ballot  by  trade  unionists  and  workmen  united  re- 
gardless of  party,  that  we  may  elect  men  from  our 
own  ranks  to  write  new  laws  and  administer  them 
along  lines  laid  down  in  the  legislative  demands  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  and  at  the  same 
time  secure  an  impartial  judiciary  that  will  not 
govern  us  by  arbitrary  injunctions  of  the  courts, 
nor  act  as  the  pliant  tool  of  corporate  wealth." 
And  in  1906  it  determined,  first,  to  defeat  all  candi- 
dates who  are  either  hostile  or  indifferent  to  labor's 
demands;  second,  if  neither  party  names  such  can- 
didates, then  to  make  independent  labor  nomina- 
tions; third,   in  every  instance  to  support  "the 
men  who  have  shown  themselves  to  be  friendly 
to  labor." 


♦  * 


LABOR  AND  POUTICS  247 

With  great  astuteness,  perseverance,  and  alert- 
ness, the  Federation  has  pursued  this  method  to  its 
uttermost  possibilities.    In  Washington  it  has  met 
with  singular  success,  reaching  a  high-water  mark 
in  the  first  Wilson  Administration,  with  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Clayton  bill  and  the  eight-hor  -  railroad 
bill.    After  this  action,  a  great  New  York  daily 
lamented  that  "Congress  is  a  subordinate  branch 
of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor.  .   .   .     The 
unsleeping  watchmen  of  organized  labor  know  how 
intrepid  most  Congressmen  are  when  threatened 
with  the '  labor  vote.'  The  American  laborites  don't 
have  to  send  men  to  Congress  as  their    British 
brethren  do  to  the  House  of  Commons.    From  the 
galleries  they  watch  the  proceedings.     They  are 
mighty  in  committee  rooms.    They  reason  with  the 
recalcitrant.   They  fight  opponents  in  theirCongress 
districts.     There  are  no  abler  or  more  potent  poli- 
ticians than  the  labor  leaders  out  of  Congress.   Why 
should  rulers  like  Mr.  Gompers  and  Mr.  Furuseth' 
go  to  Congress?    They  are  a  Super-Congress." 

Many  Congressmen  have  felt  the  retaliatory 
power  of  the  Federation.  Even  such  pow-rful 
leaders  as  Congressman  Littlefield  of  Maine  and 

'Andrew  Furuseth.  the  president  of  the  Seament  Union  and 
reputed  author  of  the  Seaman'i  Act  of  1015. 


«48  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

Speaker  Cannon  were  compelled  to  exert  their  ut- 
most to  overcome  union  opposition.  The  Federa- 
tion has  been  active  in  seating  union  men  in  Con- 
gress. In  1908  there  were  six  union  members  in 
the  House;  in  1910  there  were  ton;  in  1912  there 
were  seventeen.  The  Secretary  of  Labor  himself 
holds  a  union  card.  Nor  has  the  Feoeration  shrunk 
from  active  participation  in  the  presidential  lists. 
It  bitterly  opposed  President  Roosevelt  when  he 
espoused  the  open  shop  in  the  Government  Print- 
ing Office;  and  in  1908  it  openly  espoused  the 
Democratic  ticket. 

In  thus  maintaining  a  sort  of  grand  partisan 
neutrality,  the  Federation  not  only  holds  in  numer- 
ous instances  the  balance  of  power  but  it  makes 
party  fealty  its  slave  and  avoids  the  costly  luxury 
of  maintaining  a  separate  nationa'  ^xganization 
of  its  own.    The  all-seeing  lobby  which  it  maintains 
at  Washington  is  a  prototype  of  what  one  may  dis- 
cern in  most  state  capitals  when  the  legislature  is 
in  session.    The  legislative  programmes  adopted  by 
the  various  state  labor  bodies  are  metamorphosed 
into  demands,  and  well  organized  committees  are 
present  to  cooperate    with   the   labc:    members 
who  sit  in  the  legislature.    The  unions,  through 
their  steering  committee,  select  with  caution  the 


i 


LABOR  AND  POL^ICS  249 

members  who  are  to  introduce  the  labor  billaand 
watch  paternally  over  every  stage  in  the  progress 
of  a  measure. 

Most  of  this  legislative  output  has  been  strictly 
protective  of  union  interests.  Labor,  like  all  other 
interests  that  aim  to  use  the  power  of  government, 
has  not  been  wholly  altruistic  in  its  motives,  es- 
pecially since  in  recent  years  it  has  found  itself 
matched  against  such  powerful  organizations  of 
employers  as  the  Manufacturers*  Association,  the 
National  Erectors*  Association,  and  the  Metal 
Trades  Association.  In  fact,  in  nearly  every  im- 
portant industry  the  employers  have  organized  for 
defensive  and  offensive  purposes.  These  organi- 
zations match  committee  with  committee,  lobby 
with  lobby,  add  espionage  to  open  warfare,  and 
issue  effective  literature  in  behalf  of  their  open 
shop  propaganda. 

The  voluminous  labor  codes  of  such  great  manu- 
facturing communities  as  Massachusetts,  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Illinois,  reflect  a  new  and 
enlarged  conception  of  the  modern  State.  Labor 
has  generally  favored  measures  that  extend  the 
inquisitional  and  regulative  functions  of  the  State, 
excepting  where  this  extension  seemed  to  interfere 
-th  the  autonomy  of  labor  itself.     Workshops, 


il 


u 


>i « 


250  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

mines,  factories,  and  other  places  of  employment 
are  now  minutely  inspected,  and  innumerable  sani- 
tary and  safety  provisions  are  enforced.  A  work- 
man's compensation  law  removes  from  the  em- 
ployee's mind  his  anxiety  for  the  fate  of  his  family 
if  he  should  be  disabled.  The  labor  contract,  long 
extolled  as  the  segis  of  economic  liberty,  is  no  longer 
free  from  state  vigilance.  The  time  and  method 
of  paying  wages  are  ordered  by  the  State,  and  in 
certain  industries  the  hours  of  labor  are  fixed  by 
law.  Women  and  children  are  the  special  proteges 
ot  this  new  State,  and  great  care  is  taken  that  they 
shall  be  engaged  only  in  employment  suitable  to 
their  strength  and  under  an  environment  that  will 
not  ruin  their  health. 

The  growing  social  control  of  the  individual  is 
significant,  for  it  is  not  only  the  immediate  condi- 
tions of  labor  that  have  come  under  public  sur- 
veillance. Where  and  how  the  workman  lives  is  no 
longer  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  public,  nor 
what  sort  of  schooling  his  children  get,  what  games 
they  play,  and  what  motion  pictures  they  see.  The 
city,  in  cooperation  with  the  State,  now  provides 
nurses,  dentists,  oculists,  and  surgeons,  as  well  as 
teachers  for  the  children.  This  local  paternalism 
increases  yearly  in  its  solicitude  and  receives  the 


'  1 1 

■  f.  i 

1  f 


I     . 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  251 

eager  sanction  of  the  labor  members  of  city  councils. 
The  State  has  also  set  up  elaborate  machinery  for 
observing  all  pht.  ies  of  the  labor  situation  and  for 
gathering  statistics  and  other  information  that 
should  be  helpful  in  framing  labor  laws,  and  has 
also  established  state  employment  agencies  and 
boards  of  conciliation  and  arbitration. 

This  machinery  of  mediation  is  significant  not 
because  of  what  it  has  already  accomplished  but  as 
evidence  of  the  realization  on  the  part  of  the  State 
that  labor  disputes  are  not  merely  the  concern  of 
the  two  parties  to  the  labor  contract.  Society  has 
finally  come  to  realize  that,  in  the  complex  of  the 
modem  State,  it  also  is  vitally  concerned,  and,  in 
despair  at  thousands  of  strikes  every  year,  with 
their  wastage  and  their  aftermath  of  bitterness, 
it  has  attempted  to  interpose  its  good  oflSces 
as  mediator. 

The  modem  labor  laws  cannot  be  credited,  how- 
ever, to  labor  activity  alone.  The  new  social  at- 
mosphere has  provided  a  congenial  milieu  for  this 
vast  extension  of  state  functions.  The  philan- 
thropist, the  statistician,  and  the  sociologist  have 
become  potent  allies  of  the  labor-legislator;  and 
such  non-labor  organizations,  as  the  American 
Association  for   Labor  Legislation,  have  added 


I 


252  TIIE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

their  momentum  to  the  movement.  New  ideals 
of  social  cooperation  have  been  established,  and 
new  conceptions  of  the  responsibilities  of  private 
ownership  have  been  evolved. 

While  labor  organizations  have  succeeded  rather 
readily  in  bending  the  legislative  power  to  their 
wishes,  the  military  arm  of  the  executive  and  the 
judiciary  which  ultimately  enforce  the  command  of 
the  State  have  been  beyond  their  reach.  To  bend 
these  branches  of  the  government  to  its  will,  or- 
ganized labor  has  fought  a  persistent  and  aggres- 
sive warfare.  Decisions  of  the  courts  which  do  not 
sustain  union  contentions  are  received  with  great 
disfavor.  The  open  shop  decisions  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  are  characterized  as  unfair 
and  partisan  and  are  vigorously  opposed  in  all  the 
labor  journals.  It  is  not,  however,  until  the  sanc- 
tion of  public  opinion  eventually  backs  the  attitude 
of  the  unions  that  the  laws  and  their  interpretation 
can  conform  entirely  to  the  desires  of  labor. 

The  chief  grievance  of  organized  labor  against 
the  courts  is  their  use  of  the  injunction  to  prevent 
boycotts  and  strikes.  "Governmtnt  by  injunc- 
tion "  is  the  complaint  of  the  unions  and  it  is  based 
upon  the  common,  even  reckless,  use  of  a  writ 
which  was  in  origin  and  intent  a  high  and  rarely 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  253 

used  prerogative  of  the  Court  of  Chancery.  What 
was  in  early  times  a  powerful  weapon  in  the  hands 
of  the  Crown  against  riotous  assemblies  and  threat- 
ened lawlessness  was  invoked  in  1868  by  an  English 
court  as  a  remedy  against  industrial  disturbances.' 
Since  the  Civil  War  the  American  courts  in  rap- 
idly increasing  numbers  have  used  this  weapon, 
and  the  Damascus  blade  of  equity  has  been  trans- 
formed into  a  bludgeon  in  the  hands  even  of 
magistrates  of  inferior  courts. 

The  prime  objection  which  labor  urges  against 
this  use  of  the  injunction  is  that  it  deprives  the  de- 
fendant of  a  jury  trial  when  his  liberty  is  at  stake. 
The  unions  have  always  insisted  that  the  law 
should  be  so  modified  that  this  right  would  accom- 
pany all  injunctions  growing  out  of  labor  disputes. 
Such  a  denatured  injunction,  however,  would  de- 
feat the  purpose  of  the  writ;  but  the  union  leader 
maintains,  on  the  other  hand,  that  he  is  placed  un- 
f J I  .  ^  disadvantage,  when  an  employer  can 
c     ;  'for  his  own  aid  in  an  industrial  dispute 

ti  o  and  sure  arm  of  a  law  originally  intended 

for  a  very  diflFeront  purpose.  The  imprisonment  of 
Debs  during  the  Pullman  strike  for  disobeying  a 
Federal  injunction  brought  the  issue  vividly  before 

'  Springfield  Spinning  Company  vs.  Riley,  L.  R.  6  Eq.  351. 


iT 


■li 


1 1,-; 


254  THE  ARMIES  OP  LABOR 

the  public;  and  the  sentencing  of  Gompers,  Mitch- 
ell, and  Morrison  to  prison  terms  for  violating 
the  Buck's  Stove  injunction  produced  new  waves 
of  popular  protest.  Occasional  dissenting  opinions 
by  judges  and  the  gradual  conviction  of  lawyers 
and  of  society  that  some  other  tribunal  than  a 
court  of  equity  or  even  a  court  of  law  would  be 
more  suitable  for  the  settling  of  labor  disputes  is 
indicative  of  the  change  ultimately  to  be  wrought 
in  practice. 

The  unions  are  also  violently  opposed  to  the  use 
of  military  power  by  the  State  during  strikes.  Not 
only  can  the  militia  be  called  out  to  enforce  the 
mandates  of  the  State  but  whenever  Federal  inter- 
ference is  justified  the  United  States  ^roops  may 
be  sent  to  the  stene  of  turmoil.  After  the  penod 
of  great  labor  troubles  culminating  in  the  Pullman 
strike,  many  States  reorganized  their  militia  into 
national  guards.  The  armories  built  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  the  guard  were  called  by  tL 
unions  "plutocracy's  bastiles,"  and  the  mounted 
State  constabulary'  organized  in  1906  by  Pennsyl- 
vania were  at  once  dubbed  "American  Cossacks." 
Several  States  following  the  example  of  Pennsyl- 
vania have  encountered  the  bitterest  hostility  on 
the  part  of  the  labor  unions.    Already  opposition 


LABOR  AND  POUTICS  255 

to  the  militia  has  proceedtd  so  far  that  some  un- 
ions hr.ve  forbidden  their  members  to  perform  mili- 
tia service  when  called  to  do  strike  duty,  and  the 
military  readjustments  involved  in  the  Great  War 
have  profoundly  affected  *h*,  relation  of  the  State 
to  organized  labor.     Following  the  signing  of  the 
armistice,  a  movement  for  the  organization  of  an 
American  Labor  party  patterned  after  the  British 
Labour  party  gained  rapid  momentum,  especially 
m  New  York  and  Chicago.    A  platform  of  fourteen 
points  was  formulated  at  a  general  conference  of 
the  leaders,  and  provisional  organizations  were  per- 
fected in  a  number  of  cities.     What  power  this 
latest  attempt  to  enlist  labor  in  partisan  politics 
will  assume  is  problematical.    It  is  obviously  in- 
spired by  European  experiences  and  promulgated 
by  socialistic  propacjanda.    It  has  not  succeeded  in 
invading  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  which 
did  not  formally  endorse  the  movement  at  its  An- 
nual Convention  in  1919.    Gompers,  in  an  inti- 
mate and  moving  sn-ech,  told  a  group  of  labor  lead- 
ers gathered  in  N       York  on  December  9,  1918, 
that  "the  organization  of  a  political  party  would 
simply  mean  the  dividing  of  the  activities  and  al- 
legiance of  the  men  and  women  of  labor  betweea 
two  bodies,  such  as  would  often  come  in  conflict." 


256  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 

Under  present  conditions,  it  would  appear  that  no 
Labor  party  could  succeed  in  theUnited  States  with- 
out the  cooperation  of  the  American  Federation 

of  Labor. 

The  relation  between  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  and  the  socialistic  and  political  labor 
movements,  as  well  as  the  monopolistic  eagerness 
of  the  socialists  to  absorb  these  activities,  is  clearly 
indicated  in  Gompers's  nanative  of  his  experiences 
as  an  American  labor  representative  at  the  Lon- 
don Conference  of  1918.  The  following  paragraphs 
are  significant: 


;  / 


When  the  Inter-Allied  Labor  Conference  opened  in 
London,  on  September  17th,  early  in  the  morning, 
there  were  sent  over  to  my  room  at  the  hotel  cards 
which  were  intended  to  be  the  credential  cards  for  our 
delegation  to  sign  and  hand  in  as  our  credentials.  The 
card  read  something  like  this:  "The  undersigned  is 
a  duly  accredited  delegate  to  the  Intrr-Allied  Socialist 
Conference  to  be  held  at  London,"  etc.,  and  giving 
the  dates. 

I  refused  to  sign  my  name,  or  permit  my  name  to  be 
put  upon  any  card  of  that  character.  My  associates 
were  as  indignant  as  I  was  and  refused  to  sign  any  such 
credential.  We  went  to  the  hall  where  the  conference 
was  to  be  held.  There  was  a  young  lady  at  the  door. 
When  w.-  .  le  an  effort  to  enter  she  asked  for  our 
cards.    We  said  we  had  no  cards  to  present.    "  Well, " 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS 


857 


the  answer  came,  "you  cannot  be  admitted."  We 
replied,  "That  may  l)e  true  —  we  cannot  be  admitted 
—  but  we  will  not  sign  any  such  card.  ^\'e  have  our 
credentials  written  out,  signed,  and  sealed  and  will 
present  them  to  any  committee  of  the  conference  for 
scrutiny  and  recommendation,  but  we  are  not  going  to 
sign  such  a  card." 

Mr.  Charles  Bowerman,  Secretary  of  .he  Parlia- 
mentary Committee  of  the  British  Trade  Union  Con- 
gress, at  that  moment  emerged  from  the  door.  lie 
asked  why  we  had  not  entered.  I  told  him  the  situa- 
tion, and  he  persuaded  the  young  lady  to  permit  us  to 
pass  in.  We  entered  the  hall  and  presented  our  cre- 
dentials. Mr.  James  S<  ▼ton,  oflBcer  and  representa- 
tive of  the  Docker's  Li.  .on  of  Liverpool,  arose  and 
called  the  attention  of  the  Conference  to  this  situa- 
tion, and  'declared  that  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  delegates  refused  to  sign  any  such  document. 
He  said  it  was  not  an  Inter-Allied  Socialist  Con- 
ference, but  an  Inter-Allied  Socialist  and  Labor 
Conference. 

Mr.  Arthur  Henderson,  of  the  Labor  Party,  made  an 
explanation  something  to  this  effect,  if  my  memory 
servies  me:  "It  is  really  regrettable  thai  such  an  en  > 
should  have  been  made.  It  wcs  due  to  the  ft  • 
that  the  old  card  of  credentials  which  has  Lcen  used 
in  former  conferences  was  sent  to  the  pi  i  iter,  no 
one  paying  any  attention  to  it,  l/'nking  i*  ^ns  all 
right." 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  signihcance  of 
that  explanation,  that  is,  that  the  trade  union  move- 
ment of  Great  Britain  was  represented  at  these  former 
conferences,  but  at  this  conference  the  importance  of 


17 


858 


THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR 


Labor  was  regarded  as  so  insignificant  that  everybody 
took  it  for  granted  that  it  was  perfectly  all  right  to 
have  the  credential  card  read  "Inter- Allied  Social- 
ist Conference"  and  with  the  omission  of  this  more 
important  term,  "  Labor. " ' 


^:1 


is 
ii 


;  1 


As  one  looks  back  upon  the  history  of  the  work- 
ingman,   one   finds   something   impressive,    even 
majestic,  in  the  rise  of  the  fourth  estate  from  a 
humble  place  to  one  of  power  in  this  democratic 
nation.    In  this  rise  of  fortune  the  laborer's  union 
ht»s  unquestionably  been  a  moving  force,  perhaps 
even  the  leading  cause.    At  least  this  homogeneous 
mass  of   workingmen,  guided  by  self-developed 
leadership,  has  aroused  society  to  safeguard  more 
carefully  the  individual  needs  of  all  its  parts     La- 
bor has  awakened  the  state  to  a  sense  of  respon- 
sibility for  its  great  sins  of  neglect  and  has  made 
it  conscious  of  its  social  duties.    Labor,  like  other 
elements  of  society,    us  often  been  selfish,  narrow, 
vindictive;  but  it  has  also  shown  itself  earnest  and 
constructive.    The  conservative  trades  union,  at 
the  hour  of  this  writing,  stands  as  a  bulwark  be- 
tween that  amorphous,   inefficient,  irresponsible 
Socialism  which  has  made  Russia  a  lurid  warning 
and  Prussia  a  word  of  scorn,  and  that  rational 


'American  Fiderationitt,  JaDuary.  1910,  pp.  40-41. 


LABOR  AND  POLITICS  259 

social  ideal  which  is  founded  upon  the  conviction 
that  society  is  ultimately  an  organic  spiritual  unity, 
the  blending  of  a  thousand  diverse  interests  whose 
justly  combined  labors  and  harmonized  talents 
create  civilization  and  develop  culture. 


1 
t 


^A 


If 


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v'^ 

M 

m 

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1^ 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

While  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  writing  on  the  labor 
problem,  there  are  very  few  works  on  the  history  of 
labor  organizations  in  the  United  States.  The  main 
reliance  for  the  earlier  period,  in  the  foregoing  pages, 
has  been  the  Documentary  History  of  American  Indus- 
trial Society,  edited  by  John  R.  Commons,  10  vols. 
(1910).  The  History  of  Labour  in  the  United  States,  2 
vols.  (1918),  which  he  published  with  associates,  ia  the 
most  convenient  and  complete  compilation  that  has 
yet  appeared  and  contains  a  large  mass  of  historical 
material  on  the  labor  question. 

The  following  works  are  devoted  to  discussions  of 
various  phases  of  the  history  of  American  labor  and 
industry : 

T.  S.  Adams  and  Helen  L.  Sumner,  Labor  Problems 
(1905).  Contains  several  refreshing  chapters  on  labor 
organizations. 

F.  T.  Carlton,  The  ni.<dnry  and  Problem  of  Organized 
Labor  (1911).    A  succinct  discussion  of  union  problems. 

R.  T.  Ely,  The  Labor  Movement  in  America  (1886). 
Though  one  of  the  earliest  American  works  on  the 
subject,  it  remains  indispensable. 

G.  G.  Groat,  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Organ- 
ized Labor  in  America  (1916).  A  useful  and  up-to-date 
compendium. 

861 


262 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


5i  f 


; 


I)' 


^i 


it  $ 


R.  F.  Hoxie,  Trade  Unionism  in  the  United  Si<Ue$ 
(1917).  A  suggestive  study  of  the  philosophy  of 
unionism. 

J.  R.  Commons  (Ed.),  Trade  Unionism  and  Labor 
Problems  (1905). 

J.  H.  Hollander  and  G.  E.  Bamett  (Eds.),  Studies  in 
American  Trade  Unionism  (1905).  These  two  volumes 
are  collections  of  contemporary  studies  of  many  phases 
of  organized  labor  by  numerous  scholars.  They  are 
not  historical. 

The  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  vol.  xvn 
(1901)  provides  the  most  complete  analysis  of  trade- 
union  policies  and  also  contains  valuable  historical 
summaries  of  many  unions. 

G.  E.  McNeill  (Ed.),  The  Labor  Movenenl:  the  Prob- 
lem of  Today  (1892).  This  collection  contains  histori- 
cal sketches  of  the  organizations  of  the  greater  labor 
groups  and  of  the  development  of  the  more  important 
issues  espoused  by  them.  For  many  years  it  was  the 
mosc  comprehenuve  historical  work  on  American  union- 
ism, and  it  remains  a  necessary  source  of  information 
to  the  student  of  trades  union  history. 

J.  G.  Brissenden,  The  Launching  of  the  Industrial 
Workers  of  the  World  (1913).  An  account  of  the  origin 
of  the  I.  W.  W. 

J.  G.  Brooks,  American  Syndicalism:  the  I.  W.  W. 
(1913). 

John  Mitchell,  Organiud  Labor  (190S).  A  sugges- 
tive exposition  of  the  principles  of  Unionism  by  a  dis- 
tinguished labor  leader.  It  contains  only  a  limited 
amount  of  historical  matter. 

T.  V.  Powderly,  Thirty  Years  of  Labor  (1889.)  A  his- 
tory of  the  Knights  of  Labor  from  a  personal  viewpoint 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  26S 

E.  L.  Bogart,  The  Economic  History  of  the  United 
States  (rev.  ed.,  1918).  A  concise  and  clear  account 
of  our  economic  development. 

R.  T.  Ely,  Evolution  of  Industrial  Society  (1903). 

Carroll  D.  Wright,  The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the 
United  States  (1895). 

G.  S.  Callender,  Selections  from  the  Economic  History 
of  the  United  States  (1909).  A  collection  of  readings. 
The  brief  introductory  essays  to  each  chapter  give  a 
succinct  account  of  American  industrial  development 
to  1860. 


Nw) 


INDEX 


Aberdeen  (S.  D.).  I.  W.  W.  in. 
Hi 

Adamson  Law  (eight-hour 
railroad  law),  133  (note), 
160,  164-66,  247 

Agrarian  party,  224 

Akron  (O),  strike  in  rubber 
works,  206-07 

Albany,  trade  unions  in,  34 

Albany  Mechanical  Society 
(1801).  22 

Allegheny  City,  ten-hour  con- 
troversy in  cotton  mills,  54 

Amalgamated  Association  of 
Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  126 

Amalgamated  Labor  Union.  88 

Amalgamated  Wood  Workers' 
Association,  109 

Amboy  (111.).  Conductors' 
Union  organized  (1868).  150 

Americati  Alliance  for  Labor 
and  Democracy,  101-02 

American  Association  for 
Labor  Legislation,  251 

"American  Cossacks."  254 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 
suggested  at  Terre  Haute 
(1881),  88;  established 
(1886),  89;  growth.  89-90; 
organization,  90-93,  112; 
Gompers  and,  94  et  acq.; 
financial  policy,  97;  and 
Gr«;  t  War,  100  et  «(■,/.;  and 
la'  •>f  readjustment,!  07;  at- 
titudctoward  Socialism,  108, 
111,  245,  256;  tendency  to- 
ward amalgamating  allied 
trades,     109-10;     and     un- 


skilled labor.  109;  impor- 
tance, 110-11;  Mitchell  and, 
128;  and  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineers,  133 
(note);  and  Buck's  Stove 
and  Range  Company  boy- 
cott, 181;  and  Danbury 
Hatters'  case.  184;  and 
L  W.  W.,  104;  and  Lawrenc* 
mill  workers,  203;  and  poli- 
tics, 242,  245-46,  256;  in- 
fluences legislation,  240-52; 
and  American  Labor  party 
movement,  255-56 

American  Federatianist,  organ 
of  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  92,  181,  195 

American  Labor  party,  move- 
ment for  forming,  255 

American  Newspaper  Pub- 
lishers Association,  169 

American  Railway  Union,  and 
strikes,  138,  159;  Debs  presi- 
dent of,  243 

Anthracite  Coal  Strike  (1902), 
113,  129-30,  174;  Commis- 
sion  cross-examines  Mitchell, 
130  (note) 

Anti-Boycott  Association,  180 

Anti-Monopr'ist  party,  233 

Arbitration.  85-86;  law  provid- 
ing for  settlement  of  railway 
disputes  (1888),  85;  in  An- 
thracite Coal  Strike.  129-30; 
Board  to  deal  with  railway 
problems  (1912),  146-50; 
Erdman  Act  (1898),  148, 
162;     Federal    legislation 


264 


266 


INDEX 


Arbitration — Contin  ued 
(1883).     161-C2;    Newlands 
Law  (1913),    162:    Brother- 
hoods refuse  (1010).  1G3-C1 

Arizona,  "hobo"  labor  in,  190 

Arkwright.  Sir  Richerd.  in- 
vents roller  spinning 
machine.  7 

Arnold.  F.  W..  154 

Arthur,  P.  M..  141-43 

Association  of  Longshoremen, 
117 

Aurora,  Philadelphia  news- 
paper, 23 

Baltimore,  f^uilds  before 
Revolution  in,  21;  tailors' 
strike  (1795),  22;  early 
unions  in,  84;  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  strikes,  57,  67;  Labor 
Congress  (1866),  73 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  quoted,  241- 
242 

Bank,  L'nitcd  States,  as  politi- 
cal issue,  27 

Beecher,  H.  W.,  and  eight- 
hour  day,  71 

Belgium,  syndicalism  in,  180; 
general  strikes.  200 

Bell,  A.  G.,  and  the  telephone, 
64 

Benson,  A.  L.,  presidential 
candidate  (1016),  243-44 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  Place  and, 
17 

Berger,  Victor,  244,  245 

Berne  (Switzerland),  labor 
conference  at,  105-06 

Billings  (Mont.),  treatment  of 
L  W.  W.  leaders  in,  216 

Bisbee  (Ariz.),  I.  W.  W. 
strikers  in,  216 

Bolshevists.  Gompers's  atti- 
tude toward,  108;  and  I. 
W.  W.,  218 

Boston,  early  trade  unions  in, 
84;  strike  benefits  in,  39; 
cooperative  movement,  46- 
47;  strikes  because  of  cost  of 


living  (1853).  57;  eight-hour 
societies,  70;  workmgman's 
party,  ii7 

Bo.ston  Labor  Reform  Asso- 
ciation circulates  Steward's 
pamphlet,  71 

Boston  Trades  l.'nion,  33 

Bowerman,  Charles,  257 

Boycott,  Captain,  177  (note) 

Boycott,  177  el  teq.;  used 
against  convict  labor,  37; 
union  label  as  weapon,  184- 
186;  court  injunction  to  pre- 
vent, 252 

Braidwood  (111.).  Mitchell  at, 
127-28 

Brewer,  Justice  D.  J.,  on  strike 
violence,  174 

Brewery  workers  and  con'rol 
of  coopers,  118 

Brisbane,  Albert,  47 

Brissenden,  J.  C,  The  Launch- 
ing of  the  Industrial  Workers 
of  the  World,  cited,  196 
(note) 

Brook  Farm  experiment,  41 

Brotherhood  of  Locomotive 
Engineers,  origin,  133;  and 
American  Federation  of  La- 
bor, 133  (note);  character, 
134;  supervision  of  members, 
135-36;  excludes  firemen, 
136;  attitude  toward  non- 
members,  136-37;  business 
policy,  137-38;  activitits, 
138-40;  organization,  140; 
and  Firemen's  Brotherhood, 
154 

Brotherhood  of  the  Footboard, 
133 

Brotherhood  of  Trainmen,  156 

Brush,  C.  ¥.,  and  electric 
lighting,  64 

Buck's  Stove  and  Range  Com- 
pany of  St.  Louis,  boycott 
ca.se,   180-82,  254 

Buffalo,  marhini.sts'  strike 
(1880),  67-68;  annual  con- 
vention   of     Federation    of 


INDEX 


267 


Buffalo— Conh'nued 

Labor  (1917),  101;  railway 
strike  (1877).  174;  I.  W.  \\. 
disclosures,  £17 

Burns,  John,  123 

Butler,  General  B.  F.,  232-33 

Butte  (Mont.)..  Western  Fed- 
eration of  Miners  organized 
at,  192 

California,  effect  of  discovery 
of  gold  oa  cost  of  living,  57; 
"hobo "labor  in,  190;politi- 
cal  labor  movement,  238- 
£42;  Workingman's  party, 
239;  new  constitution,  211 

Cannon,  J.  G.,  248 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  18;  and 
British  industrial  conditions, 
9;  Emerson  writes  to,  41 

Carter,  W.  S.,  154-50 

Cedar  Rapids  (la.),  head- 
quarters of  Order  of  Railway 
Conductors,  150 

Charleston  Navy  Yard,  eight- 
hour  day  in  (1842),  70 

Chevalier,  Michel,  quoted,  37 

Chicago,  stockyards'  strike 
(1880),  67;  Haymarket  riots, 
68,  83-84;  Railway  strike 
(1877).  174;  "floaters- 
winter  in,  190;  conferences 
organize  I.  W.  W.,  193-94; 
revolutionary  branch  of  I. 
W.  W.  in,  196;  I.  W.  W. 
offices  raided,  217;  Labor 
party  conference,  235;  move- 
ment to  form  .\mcriran 
Labor  party,  255 

Child  labor.  28;  in  England,  9; 
Greeley  and,  52-53;  Paris 
peace  treaty  and,  107;  State 
regulation.  U50 

Chinese  denounced  in  Cali- 
fornia, 238,  239 

Cigar- makers'  International 
Union,  Gompcrs  and,  94 

Cincinnati,  becomes  manu- 
facturing  town    (1820),   20; 


early  unions  in,  34;  coopera- 
tive movement  in,  45,  40; 
Railway  strike  (1S77).  174; 
National  Lnion  party  or- 
gani.;cd  (1887),  233 

Civil  War,  condition  of  L'nit«d 
States  after.  63-C4 

Clark.  E.  E..  151 

Clayton  Act,  100,  184,  217 

Cleveland,  Grover.  M..s.saKf 
(1886).  85;  and  Pullman 
strike.  174 

Cleveland,  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineers  own 
building  in,  140;  Firemcii'.s 
Magazine  published  in,  150; 
I.  W.  W.  disclosures.  217 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  23 

Collective  bargaining,  trade 
unions  and,  1C8-71 

Colorado,  miners' strikes,  174, 
193;  "hobo"  labor  in.  190; 
labor  ticket  (1888).  i^T 

Columbia,  puddlers'  strike 
(1880),  67 

Columbus,  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  estalilishcd 
(1886),  89;  (.rder  of  Railway 
Conductorsorganizcd(1868), 
150 

Combinations  in  restraint  of 
trade,  origin  of  >loctrine,  IC; 
in  England.  17 

Coming  Nation,  \.  II.  Simons 
editor  of.  195 

Commerce  of  Great  Britain,  0 

Commons,  J.  R..  29-30 

Communistic  colonies.  Owen's 
attempts.  40-41;  Brook 
Farm.  41 

Comstock.  Russell.  223 

Confederation  (ieneral  <.'  t  Tra- 
vail, 189 

Congress.  Homestead  Ai-t 
(1862).  50;  estabi'shes  eight- 
hour  day  for  public  work, 
71;  Clayton  bill  (1914),  100, 
181,  247;  eight-hour  railroad 
law,  133  (note),  100,  164-05. 


268 


INDEX 


I 


Congress — Continued 

106.  247;  Wilson  and.  164; 
and  I.  W.  W.,  216;  and 
American  Federation  of 
Labor.  247 

Connecticut,  delegates  to  na- 
tional cordwainers'  conven- 
tion (1836). 3d;  labor  politics, 
227;  labor  ticket  (1872).  237 

''onspiracy,  legal  doctrine  in 
England.  15-16;  strikers 
tried  for,  23;  trials  in  New 
York  City.  23-24.  32;  acting 
in  unison  considered.  28 

Convict  labor.  36;  boycott  used 
against,  37 

Cooper,  Peter,  231 

Cottperative  movement,  45-48, 
58 

Corn  laws,  6 

Cost  of  living,  bread  riots 
caused  by  high.  39;  Mooney 
on  (1850).  43-44;  in  1853, 
67;  Stone's  attempt  to  ad- 
just wages  to  meet.  144 

Council  of  National  Defense, 
102-03 

Crompton.  Samuel,  and  spin- 
ning machine.  7 

Daily   Advertiser,    New    York, 

on  -trikes  (1834).  172 
Daiig    People,    DeLeon   editor 

of,  195 
Panbury     Hatters'     Boycott, 

180,  182-84 
Daniels,  Newell,  74 
Davis,  Judge  David,  230 
Debs,  E.  v.,  154,  195,  243,  253 
Debt,  imprisonment  for,  36 
Declaration  of  Independence,  1 
Defoe,    Daniel,    on    domestic 
system  of  manufacture,  4-5 
Delaware,  delegates  to  national 
cordwainers'      convention 
(1836).  35 
DeLeon.  Daniel,  195 
Democratic    party    and    ten- 
hour  day,  53 


Detroit,  headquarters  for  So- 
cialist factions  of  I.  W.  W., 
196;  I.  W.  W.  offices  raided. 
217 

Direct  action.  200-01 

Dover  (N.  H.).  mill  girls* 
strike  (1829).  55 

Duncan,  James,  124 

Edison,  T.  A.,  64 

Education,  condition  before 
1840,  28;  issue  with  labor, 
36;  public  school  improve- 
ment, 42;  Paris  peace  treaty 
and, 107 

Edward  III,  proclamation  of 
1349,  12 

Eidlitz,  O.  M.,  146 

Eight-Hour  League,  70;  see 
also  Hours  of  labor 

Elevator  Constructors'  Union, 
118 

Eliot,  C.  W..  and  Gompers,  98 

Ely.  R.  T..  quoted,  21 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  on  commun- 
istic experiments,  41 

Employers'  organizations,   249 

Erdman  Act,  146,  162 

Erie  Railroad,  firemen  organize 
Brotherhood,  152 

Erne,  Lord,  Irish  landlord,  177 
(note) 

Ettor,  J.  J.,  204 

Evans,  G.  H.,  48-49 

Evans,  Samuel,  233 

Evening  Post,  account  of  mass 
meeting  in  New  York.  32: 
quoted,  33 

Everett,  Edward,  53 

Everett  (Wash.),  and  I.  W.  W., 
212 

Factory      Girls"       Association 

(Lowell),  55 
Factory  inspection.  Paris  peace 

treaty  and,  107;  as  political 

issue,  231;  provided  by  law, 

249-50 


INDEX 


«69 


Farmers'   Alliance,    *3S  ;   and  j 
Knights    of    Labor    at    St. 
Louis.  235 

Federation  of  Organizc<l  i 
Trades  and  Labor  (nionsof  | 
the  United  States  and  Can-  | 
ada.  89  | 

Female  Industry  Association, 
56 

Female  Labor  Reform  Asso-  I 
ciation,  55 

Field,  J.  G.,  236 

Finance,  demand  for  capital 
after  Civil  War,  64-65;  re- 
form as  political  issue,  S31; 
Peoples  party  platform,  236 ; 
»ee  also  Panics,  Taxation 

Firemen's  Magazine,  155,  150 

"Five  Stars,"  »ee  Knights  of 
Labor 

Flynn,  E.  G.,  208 

Force.  Peter,  24 

FoBte-,  F.  K.,  The  Labor  More- 
mint,  the  Problem  of  Today, 
quoted,  75-76 

Fox,  Martin,  ilO 

France,  syndicalism  in,  188; 
general  strikes,  200 

Free  Enquirer,  222 

Friendly  Societies,  168 

Furuseth,  Andrew.  247 

Garretson,  A.  B..  151,  152 

General  Trades'  Union  of  New 
York  City,  31 

Geoige,  Henry.  234;  Kvans 
precursor  of,  48 

Glassblowers'  T'nion,  124 

GoldBeld  (Nev.),  \.  \V.  W.  at, 
202 

Goldman,  Emma,  on  syndical- 
ism, 198;  on  general  strikes, 
199 

Gompers,  Samuel,  President  of 
American  Federation  of 
Labor,  94  cf  xeq.;  early  life, 
94;  national  lobbyist  for 
Federation,  99,  247;  organ- 
ices  American   Alliance  for 


Labor  and  Democracy,  101; 
on  Council  of  Defense,  102; 
heads  American  labor  mis- 
.sion  to  Europe  (1917),  lOi- 
105;  and  Berne  labor  con- 
ference, 105-06;  contribu- 
tion to  Paris  treaty  of  peace, 
106-07;  and  Socialism,  107- 
108;  personal  characteristics, 
•  "8;  sentenced  to  imprison- 
t,  182,  254;  birtHay 
occasion  of  gift  to  Danbury 
union,  184;  on  American 
Labor  party,  255;  experience 
at  London  Conference 
(1918),  256-58 

Government  control  of  public 
utilities.  People's  party  de- 
mands, 236 

Government  operation  of  rail- 
roads. Brotherhoods'  plan 
for  (1919),  167 

'Government  ownership,  N*a- 
tional  Labor  party  on,  230 
(note) 

Government  Printing  OflRce, 
Roosevelt  espouses  open.shop 
in.  248 

jrangers,  help  organize  Na- 
tional Union  party,  233; 
join  Workingman's  party  in 
California,  240 

Granite  City  (Til.),  early 
morning  strikes  in  steel  mills, 
210-11 

Granite  Cutters'  National 
Union,  124 

Gray's  Jlarbor  CWash.),  I.  W. 
W.  in,  212 

Great  Britain,  American  insti- 
tutions modeled  after  those 
of,  1-2;  survey  of  industrial 
system,  2  et  ncq.;  ten-hour 
law  in,  53;  British  Trades 
Union  as  model  for  Ameri- 
can Federation,  88;  labor 
leaders  in.  123;  labor  com- 
pared  with  that  of  America, 
124 


STO 


INDEX 


I! 


Great  War,  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  and.  100  et  tea.; 
and  railroads,  166-67;  I.  VV. 
W.  and.  ilS;  and  Socialist 
party,  244-45 

Greeley,  Horace,  and  ten-hour 
bill,  62;  on  child  labor  law, 
5S;  and  eight-hour  day,  71 

Green  Point  (L.  I.),  potters' 
strike  (1880),  67 

Greenback  party.  68,  2S1,  itii7 

Guild  system,  3-4,  IS 

Ilamond,  Edward,  on  I.  W. 
'".,  198 

Hardie.  Keir,  183 

Hargreaves.  James,  invents 
spinning-jenny,  7 

Harriman,  Job,  243 

Hayes.  Dennis.  124-25 

Hayes,  R.  B.,  proclamation.  67 

Haywood,  W.  D.,  195,  197. 
202;  quoted.  199 

Henderson.  Arthur.  257 

Henderson.  John,  123 

Herald,  New  York,  quoted,  fi6 

Hewitt.  \.  S..  234 

Highland  Park  (111.).  Home  for 
Disabled  Railroad  Men,  139 

Hines.  W.  D..  Director-Gen- 
eral of  Railroads.  167 

Homestead  Act  (1862).  50 

Homestead  strike  (1892).  126, 
174 

Homesteaders,  233 

Hoquiam  (Wash.),  sabotage  in, 
212 

Hours  of  labor,  long  hours,  28, 
44;  ten-hour  day.  30-31.  32, 
34.  35.  44.  50-54.  100;  first 
ten-hour  law  (1847),  62; 
as  issue.  69-70;  eight-hour 
day.  70-72.  74.  129,  152; 
Paris  peace  treaty  and  eight- 
hour  day,  106;  eight-hour 
railroad  law,  133  (note), 
160,  :"4-«6,  247;  eight-hour 
law  as  political  issue.  231; 
State  regulation,  260 


Housing  conditions  about  1840. 

27 
Hume,  Joseph,  17-18 

1.  W.  W,.  see  Industrial 
Workers  of  the  World 

Idaho,  .  miners'  strike,  174; 
"hobo"  labor  in,  190;  vio- 
lence in,  193;  and  I.  W.  W., 
216 

Illiuois,  strikes.  66.  67;  eight- 
hour  law  (1867).  71;  I.  W.  W. 
and  draft  in,  216;  United 
Labor  party  in.  235;  labor 
code,  249 

Illinois  Central  Railroad,  con- 
ductors organize  union.  150 

Immigration,  character  of  im- 
migrants. 26;  adds  to  armies 
of  labor,  69;  I.  W.  W.  and. 
191;  People's  party  on,  236 

Indiana,  strikes.  6S,  67;  shoe- 
makers' strike  (1880).  68; 
labor  ticket  (1888).  237 

Indianapolis,  McNamara  trial 
at,  175 

Industrial  Commission.  United 
States.  152;  report  quoted, 
168;  on  union  restriction  of 
output,  186 

Industrial  Revolution,  26 

IndustriaJ  Workers  of  the 
World  American  Alliance 
for  Labor  and  Democracy 
as  antidote  for,  101;  and 
American  Federation  of  La- 
bor, 109;  history  of  move- 
ment, 188  et  seq.x  factions, 
196;  and  direct  action, 
200-01;  and  Socialist  party, 
245 

Industry,  centralization  of, 
87-88 

"Infidel"  party,  223,  224 

Inspection,  see  Factory  in- 
spection 

Insurance,  Locomotive  En- 
gineers' Mutual  Life  and 
Accident  Insurance  Assoda- 


INDEX 


i'A 


Inaurance — Continued 

tion,  138-;J9;  Order  of  Hail- 
way  C'onductors,  1,50; 
Brotherhood  of  Trainmen, 
160-61 

Inter- Allied  Labor  Conferencr, 
London'(Il>18),  250-58 

International  Association  of 
Machinists,  125 

International  Association  of 
Steam.  Hot  Water  an(l 
Power  Pipe  Fitters  and 
Helpers,  110 

International  Fircnien'-s  Tnion, 
152-53 

International  Typographical 
Union  of  North  America, 
60,  12C,  109 

Interstate  commerce,  regula- 
tion as  political  issue,  231 

Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission, and  wage  increases, 
145;  Clark  on,  151;  Wilson 
asks  for  reorganization  of,  1C4 

Ipswich  (Mass.),  meeting 
against  I.  W.  W,  211 

iron  Moldcrs'  Union  of  Nortli 
America,  60,  169 

Italy,  syndicalism  in,  189; 
general  strikes,  200 

Jackson,  Andrew,  and  mechan- 
ics, 27 

Jay,  John,  ou  wages  (1784),  21 

Jenkins,  Judge  J.  G.,  of  United 
States  Circuit  Court,  on 
strike  violence,  174 

Johnstown,  puddlers'  strike 
(1880).  67 

Journeymen  Stone  Cutters' 
Association  of  North 
America,  60 

Judson,  F.  K.,  140 

Kansas,  I.  W.  W.  and  draft, 
210;  labor  ticket  (1888),  237 

Kay,  John,  invents  flving 
shuttle,  7 

Kearney,  Dennis,  238 


Keefe,  D.  J..  126-27 

Kidd,  Thomas.  125 

Knapp,  Judge,  of  United 
States  Commerce  Court,  146 

Knights  of  Industry,  88 

Knights  of  Labor,  72;  history 
of,  76-85;  contrasted  to 
American  Federation  of  La- 
bor, 90;  Mitchell  and,  127, 
128;  and  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineer!*,  133 
(note);  help  organize  Na- 
tional Union  party,  233;  and 
Farmers'  Alliance  at  St. 
Louis,  235;  and  Socialist 
party.  245 

"Knights  of  St.  Crispin."  72. 
74-76 

Labor,  organizations  in  eight- 
eenth century.  14-15;  or- 
ganizations in  America 
before  Revolution.  21;  and 
politics.  08.  74.  220  et  .teq.; 
relations  with  capital,  09; 
number  of  wage-earners  in 
United  States  (1800-90), 
69;  Congress  at  Baltimore 
(1800),  73;  Bureau  of.  es- 
tablished (J 884).  85;  and 
corporations,  87;  and  Paris 
peace  treaty.  106-07; 
leaders,  121-23;  Department 
of,  and  Brotherhoods,  103; 
"floaters,"  189-90;  sp.  cial 
report  of  United  Stales 
Commissioners  of  (19u; 
193;  contract  labor  as  poii.;- 
cal  issue,  2C1;  legislation, 
247-52;  tee  also  Hours  of 
labor;  and  the  courts,  252- 
254;  bibliography,  261;  sec 
aho  Child  labor.  Convict 
labor  Hours  of  Lbor.Strikcs, 
Trade  unions.  Wages 

Labor  Reform  League.  51 

Labor  Reform  party.  74.  229- 
230 

Labour  Party  in  England,  18 


872 


INDEX 


Land,  Evans  and,  48-50; 
Homestead  Act  (1862),  50; 
forfeiture  of  grants  as  po- 
litical issue,  231 

Lawrence  (Mass.),  unemploy- 
ment (1857),  02;  strike 
(1912),  202-06 

Lee,  W.  G.,  160 

Lima  (N.  Y.).  Clark  at.  151 

Little  Falls  (N.  Y.),  strike  in 
textile  mills  (1912),  206 

Littlefield,  Congressman  from 
Maine,  247-48 

Locomotire  Engineers'  Journal 
136,  139 

Locomotive  Engineers'  Mutual 
Life  and  Accident  Insurance 
Association,  138-39 

Loeb,  Daniel,  alias  Daniel  De- 
Leon,  195 

London,  Inter-Allied  Labor 
Conference  (1918),  256-58 

London  Corresponding  So- 
ciety, 17 

Los  Angeles,  dynamiting  of 
Times  building,  175 

Lowell  (Mass.),  condition  of 
women  factory  workers 
(1846),  44-45;  women  strike 
in  (1836),  55 

Lowell  Female  Industrial  Re- 
form and    Mutual    Aid   So- 
ciety, 55 
Lynch.  J.  M.,  126 

McAdoo,  W.  G.,  166 
McCulloch,  J.  R.,  18 
MacDonald,  Ramsov.  123 
Machinists'  Union,  118 
McKee,   National   Conrentions 

and    Platforms,    cited,    233 

(note).  244  (note) 
McKees  Rocks  (Penn.),  I    \\ 

W.  at,  202 
McMaster,  J.  B..  quoted,  26 
Mc.Naniara,  James,  175 
McXamara,  J.  J.,  175 
Maine,     labor     politics.     ««7; 

labor  party  (1878),  232 


!i" 


Mann,  Horace,  42 

Manufacturers'  Association. 
249 

Manufacturing,  guild  system 
replaced  by  domestic.  4; 
introduction  of  machinery. 
7-10;  in  United  States.  24-^ 
26 

Martineau.  Harriet,  cited,  35- 

36 
Marx,    Karl,    9;    follower    ad- 
dresses    meeting     in     New 
York,  47 
Maryland,    class    distinctions, 

20;  strikes.  06 
Massachusetts,  factories  in 
1820,  25;  first  labor  investi- 
gation. 51;  women  factory 
workers.  56;  Bureau  of  La- 
borandcollective  bargaining, 
169-70;  labor  politics,  227; 
abor  party  (1878),  232; 
labor  code,  249 
Mechanics'  Union     of     Trade 

Associations,  29 
Menio   Park    (\.   .1.).   electric 

car  in,  64 
Mercantile  system,  5-6 
Metal    Polishers'    Union    and 
Buck's    Stove    and     Ranee 
case,  180 
Metal  Trades  Association,  249 
Mexican      Central      Railway. 

Garretson  on,  152 
Michigan,    "hobo"    labor   in, 
190;  labor  ticket  (1888),  237 
Militia,  use  during  strikes,  37, 

254-55 
Mill,  James,  Place  and,  17 
Milwaukee,     Knights    of    St. 
Crispin  in,  74;  and  Socialism, 
844,  245 
Minnesota,  "hobo"  labor  in, 
190;  labor  ticket  (1888).  237 
Missouri,    strikes,    66;    eight- 
hour    law   (1867),   71;   labor 
ticket  (1888),  237 
Mitchell,    John,    president    of 
United  Mine  Workers,  US, 


INDEX 


Mitchell,  John — Continued 
114.  128-«9;  life  and  char- 
acter, 127-28;  and  Anthra- 
cite   Coal    .Strike,     129-30; 
quoted.  131-32;  on  compul- 
sory membership  in  unions, 
170;  on  collective  bargain 
in^,    170;  sentenced  to  im- 
prisonment. 182,  254 
MonUna.    "hobo"    labor    in. 
190;    violence  in.    193;    and 
I.  W.  W..  216 
Mooney,  Thomas.  Nine  Years 
in  America  (1850),   quoted 
43-44 
Moore,  Ely.  31 
Morrison.  Frank,  182,  254 
Morrissey.    P.    H..    146,    148. 
158-60 

National  Civic  Federation.  152 
National  Convention  of  Jour- 
neymen Printers  (1850),  60 
National  Erectors'  Association. 

249 
National    Labor    party,    con- 
vention, 230  (note);  lee  iiho 
Labor  Reform  party 
National  Labor  Union,  73-74 

229 
National    Metal   Trade   Asso- 
ciation, 125 
National    Protective    Associa- 
tion, 133 
National  Trade  Association  of 

Hat  Finishers,  60 
National  Trades  Union,  34 
National  Typographical  Union, 

60 
National  Union  party,  233 
Navigation  Laws,  0,  10  i 

Nebraska,  labor  ticket  (1888). 

237  ! 

y    ada,  and  I.  W.  W'.,  216 

f  -w  Brunswick,  union  in,  34     | 

New    England,    class   distinc-  i 

tions,   20;    manufacture  in,  I 

•5;  women  in  textile  mills,  ' 

*4;  cotton   weavers'  strike  | 

It 


878 


(1880),    67;    labor    politics, 
225-27 
New   England   Association   of 
farmers.     Mechanics,     and 
Workingmen,  225 
New    England    Protective 

I  nion,  48 
New    England    Workingmen's 

Association.  46,  51 
New  Hampshire,  first  ten-hour 

law.  52 
New  Jersey,  manufacturing  in, 
25;     delegates     to    nationnl 
cordwainers'      convention 
(1836).    35;     ten-hour    law 
(1851),     54;     stablemen's 
strike    (1880).     67;    labor 
party  (1878).  232 
New     York  (State),  delegates 
to  national  cordwainers' 
convention  (1836).  35;  com- 
munistic colonies.  41;  cotton 
weavers'  strike   (1880),  67- 
eight-hour  law    (1867),   71;' 
boycotts,    178;  labor  partv 
(1878).   232:    United   Labor 
party  in,  235;  labor  code,  249 
yew    York    Boycotter    quoted. 

179 
New  York  Bureau  of  Statistics 
and  Labor,  on  boycotts.  178 
New   York  Central   Railroad. 

Arthur  as  engineer  on.  141 
New   York   City,   early  labor 
organizations.  21,  22;  cord- 
wainers' strike   (1809),  23- 

(1833),  SI;  General  Trades- 
Union  organized,  31;  tailors' 
strike  (1836).  32;  union  in, 
34;  boycott  of  -onvict  labor, 
37;  sabotage  in  (1835),  .38; 
strike  benefits,  39;  coopera- 
tive movement,  47-4H; 
women's  organization.i 
(1825^55;  Female  Industry 
Association  organized  (1845) 
•W;  strikes  (1853).  57;  na- 
tional   meeting    of    carpet- 


274 


INDEX 


'i!  ■ 


New  York  City—Continwd 
weavers  (1846),  60;  demon- 
stration in  1857,  61-68;  un- 
employment, 62;  ribbon 
weavers'  strike  (1880),  67; 
stablemen's  strike  (1880), 
67;  tailors'  strike  (1880),  68; 
Third  Avenue  Railway 
strike  (1886),  83;  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Engi- 
neers expels  members  (1905), 
138  (note);  garment  makers' 
strike  (1915),  169;  bakers 
strike  (1741),  172;  Mrs. 
Grey  boycotted,  178-79; 
I'floaters"  winter  in,  190; 
"army  of  the  unemployed" 
(1913-14),  209;  labor  poli- 
tics, 222;  election  (1886), 
234;  Socialist-Labor  con- 
vention (1892),  242:  move- 
ment to  form  "laierican 
Labor  party,  255 

New    York     Masons    Society 
(1807),  22 

New  York   Protective   Union, 
48 

New  York  Society  of  Journey- 
men Shipwrights  (1807),  22 

New  York  Typographical  So- 
ciety. 24 

Newark  (\.  J.),  union  in,  34 

Xewlands  Law,  162 

Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor,  tee  Knights  of  Labor 

Northern     Pacific      Railroad, 
Clark  oil      jl 

Norway,  syndicalism  in,  180 

O'Connell,  James,  125 
O'Conor,  Charles,      of      New 

York,  230 
Ohio,  communistic  colonies  in, 

41;  ten-hour  law  (1852),  54; 

strikes.  66,  67;  in  election  of 

1916,     166;    labor    ticket 

(1888),  237 
Oklahoma,  L  W.  W.  and  draft, 

216 


Omaha,  stockyards  strike 
(1880),  67;  People's  party 
convention  (1892),  236 

Oneonta  (N.  Y.),  Brother- 
hood of  the  Trainmen  or- 
ganized at  (1883),  156 

Orange  (N.  J.),  Hatters'  L  lion 
victory  in,  182 

Order  of  Railway  Conductors, 
150-52 

Oregon,  "hobo"  labor  in,  190; 
and  I.  W.  W.,  216 

Original  Working  Man's  party, 
224 

Osceola  (la.),  Garretson  born 
in,  151 

Oshkosh  (Wis.),  Kidd  arrested 

in,    25 
Owen.  Robert,  Place  and,  17; 

in  America,  40-41,  58 
Owen,  R.  D.,  222,  225 

Panics  (1837),  34,  35,  40,  50- 

51;  (1857).  61-62;  (1873-74). 
66;  (1893),  158 

Paris  Peace  Conference,  Com- 
mission on  International 
Labor  Legislation.  105;  Gom- 
pers  and  the  treaty,  100-07 

Parker,  Joel,  Governor  of  New 
Jersey,  230 

Pater.son  (N.  J.),  ribbon 
weavers'  strike  (1880).  67; 
.silk  mills  .strike  (1918).  207- 
209 

Pennsylvania,  communi.stic 
colonies  in,  41 ;  ten-hour  law, 
53;  child  labor  law,  53;  coiil 
miners  (1873),  06;  strikes. 
67;  labor  party  (1878),  232; 
labor  ticket  (1872),  237; 
labor  code,  249;  mounted 
constabulary,  254 

Penn.sylvania  Railroad.  Broth- 
erhood  and,  141 

Peoples  Council,  101 

People's  party,  235,  236;  »rc 
aho  Populist  party 

Philadelphia,   early  labor  or- 


INDEX 


275 


Philaddphia — Contin  ued 
ganizations,  21,  it;  weaving 
center,     26;     first     Trades' 
Union  in.  29;  Trades'  Union 
of  the  City  and  County  of, 
80;  number  of  union  mem- 
bers (1834),  34:strike  (1835), 
S7;  sabotage  in,   38;  strike 
benefits,      39;     cooperative 
movement,       45-46,       47; 
strikes,    57;    unemployment 
(1857).  62;    ribbon  weavers' 
strike    (1880),    67;    Knights 
of  Labor  in,  81;  cordwniners 
(180C).      171;     cordwainers' 
strike  (1702),  172;    hatters- 
union     victory,     182;  Law- 
rence strikers  start  for,  204; 
Workingman's   party,    220- 
221;  workingmen's  political 
clubs,  221-22 
Phillips,     V  endell,    and     ten- 
hour    movement,    53;    and 
eight-hour    day,    71;    nomi- 
nated  Governor   of    Massa- 
chusetts, 237 
I'inkerton  detectives  opposed 

by  People's  party,  236 
Pittsburgn,     becomes     manu- 
facturing town,  26;  union  in, 
34;    strikes,    57;    riots,    67; 
Federation      of      Organized 
Trades  established     (1881), 
89;  railway  strikes   (1877), 
174 
Pittsburgh,   Fort   Wayne  and 
Chicago  Railroad,   Brother- 
hood and,  136 
Place,  Francis,  17,  18 
Plumb  plan  of  railroad  operi- 
tion,  *ee  Government  opera- 
tion of  railroads 
Poindexter,      Miles,     Senator, 

and  I.  W.  W.,  216 
Politics.    Labor   and,    68,    74, 

220  et  srq. 
Populist  party,   2S5,   242;   sre 

alto  People's  party 
Port  Jervis  (N.  Y.),  Firemen's 


Brotherhood  organized  at, 
152 

Portland  (Ore.).  I.  W.  W.  at, 
202 

Postal  savings  banks  advo- 
cated by  People's  party,  236 

Powderly,  -r.  v..  Grand  Mas- 
ter of  Knights  of  Labor. 
79-80,  84 

Prison  r  form,  42 

Progrcosive  party,  232 

Progressive  Labor  partv.  233 

Pullman  strike,  172,  174,  195, 
243,  253 

Quintan,  Patrick.  208 

Railway      Brotherhoods,      1.13 

et  srq. 
Railway  Condurlot,    The,    150- 
151 

Reading,  railway  strike  (1877), 
174 

Red  Bank  (\.  J.),  communistic 
experiment  at,  41 

Referendum.  National  Labor 
party  on.  230  (note) 

Revolutionary  War.  new  epoch 
for  labor  begins  with,  21 

Rhode  Lsland.  ten-hour  law 
(1853),  54;  labor  politics.  227 

Uipley.  George,  and  Brook 
Farm  experiment,  41 

Rock  Island  Railroad,  .Stone 
on,  143-44 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  and 
Gompers,  08,  99;  interven- 
tion in  coal  miners'  strike 
129.  130;  and  Clark.  151; 
and  Sargent,  154;  defeatcl 
as  mayor  of  New  York  City, 
234;  Federation  of  Labor 
opposes,  248 

Ruskiii.  John,  and  labor  condi- 
tions. 0 

Russia,  general  strikes,  200 

Sabotage,  38,  201  et  trq.,  211 
Sacramento  (Cal.),  I.   W.   W. 


276 


INDEX 


■  i  ' 


Sacramento  (Cal.) — Continued 
trials  (1819).  817;  Working- 
man's      party      convention 
(1878),  240 

St.  Louis,  union  in,  34;  Knights 
of  Labor  in,  82,  83;  meeting 
of  Knights  of  Labor  and 
Farmers'  Alliance.  235 

St.  Louis  Central  Trades  and 
Labor  Union,  181 

San  Diego,  I.  W.  W.  in,  218-15 

San  Francisco,  stablemen's 
.strike  (1880),  67;  "floaters" 
winter  in,  190;  labor  situa- 
tion (1877),  238;  Workman's 
Trade  and  Labor  Union  of, 
239 

Sargent,  F.  P.,  154 

Scandinavia,  general  strikes 
in,  200 

Schaffer,  Theodore,  126 

Schenectady,  union  in,  34 

Scranton  (Penn.),  Powderly  at, 
79 

Seaman's  Act  (1915),  247 
(note) 

Seamen's  Union,  117 

Sexton,  James,  257 

Shaw,  Albert,  146 

Shaw,  Chief  Justice  of  Massa- 
chusetts, opinion  in  Com- 
monweal'^ vs.  H   nt,  60-61 

Sherman      .mti-Trust      Law, 
Go-      ,rs  and,  99;  and  boy- 
,vi.s,  183 

Silver,  free  coinage,  236 

Simons,  A.  M.,  195 

Skidmore,  Thomas,  224;  The 
Rights  of  Man  to  Property 
.  .  .  ,  222 

Smith,  Adam,  10,  18;  The 
IVealth  of  Nations,  1 

Smith,  Sidney,  qMoted,  24-23 

Snowden,  Philip,  123 

Social  Democratic  party,  243 

Socialism,  synonym  of  destruc- 
tion, 62;  organized  labor  and, 
245.  258 

Socialist  Labor  party,  196,  241* 


Socialist  party,  196,  Social 
Democratic  party  becomes 
knownas,243;in  Milwaukee, 
244;  progress  (1912),  244; 
and  Great  War.  244-45 

Socialistic  American  Labor 
Union,  194 

Sorel,  Georges,  The  Socialiit 
Future  of  Trade  Union.i, 
188-89;  Reflections  upon 
Violence,  189 

Spain,  .syndicalism  in,  189 

Spargo,  John,  245;  Syndical- 
ism, Industrial  Unionium 
and  Socialism,  201 

Spokane,  I.  W.  W.  in,  212 

Springfield  Republican,  on 
labor  party,  226-27 

Stanwood,  History  of  the  Presi- 
dency, cited,  244  (note) 

State  (iuardianship  Plan,  ii't 

Statute  of  Laborers  (1562).  li 

Stephen.s,  V.  S.,  founder  of 
Knights  of  Labor,  76-77.  7« 
79 

Steunenberg,  Frank,  Govcrnn. 
of  Idaho,  murdered,  193 

Steward,  Ira,  and  eight-hour 
day.  70-71:  A  Reduction  of 
Hours  and  Increase  of  Wages, 
71 

Stone,  W.  S.,  143-45,  149-50 

Strasser,  Adolph,  testimony 
before  Senate  Committee 
(1883).  120-21 

Straus,  O.  S.,  146 

Streeter,  A.  J.,  233 

Strikes,  weapon  of  self-de- 
fense, 14;  tailors'  strike  in 
Baltimore  (1795),  22;  cord- 
wainers  in  Philadelphia 
(1805),  22-23;  cordwainers 
in  New  York  City  (180!>), 
23;  first  general  buildinf; 
strike  (1827),  30;  first  gen- 
eral strike  in  .\merica(1835). 
80-31;  (1834-37),  82;  issues 
not  to  be  settled  hy.  %<\. 
use   of   militia,    37,   254-55; 


INDEX 


«TT 


Strikes — Coniin  ued 

sabotage,  38,  201  et  aeq.,  211; 
benefits.  39;  Boston  tailors 
(1850),  46-47;  New  York 
tailors,  47-48;  Dover  mill 
girls  (1829),  55;  Lowell 
women  factory  workers 
(1836),  53;  in  1850,  57; 
Baltimore  and  Ohio,  57,  67, 
133;  become  part  of  eco- 
nomic routine,  66;  increase  in 
number  and  importance,  66- 
68;  in  1880,  67-68;  of  188C, 
68,  82-84;  Anthracite  Coal 
Strike,  113,  129-30,  174; 
O'Connell  leads,  125;  N'ew 
York  City  railway  (1905), 
13S(note);  railroad,  141, 142, 
145,  153,  158,  174;  Brother- 
hoods threaten  (191G),  163, 
165;  New  York  City  gar- 
ment makers,  169;  history 
in  United  States,  171-73; 
strike  statistics  of  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor,  17i\ 
173;  violence,  174-76;  Law- 
rence mill  strike  (1912), 
202-06;  Little  Falls  textile 
strike,  206;  Akron  rubber 
works,  206-07;  (iranite  Citv 
(111.),  steel  mills,  210-21  f; 
court  prevention,  252-53 

Supreme  Court,  Danbury  Hat- 
ters' case,  183;  open  shop 
decision,  252 

"Supreme    Mechanical    Order 

^  of  the  Sun,"  72 

Syndicalism,  in  Europe.  188; 
L  W.  W.  and.  198 

Taft.  W.  IL,  vetoes  exei..ption 

bill  for  Anti-Trust  Law.  9!t 
Tammany  Hall.  32 
Tannenbaum,  Frank,  209-10 
Tariff,  aemand  for  protective, 

27 
Tax  Reformers,  233  j 

Taxation,  single  lax,  234,  235; 
income  tax,  231,  236  1 


Terre    Haute    (Ind.),   conven- 
tion (1881),  88-89 
Texas,  I.  \\.  VV.  and  draft,  216 
Thomas,  C.  S.,  Senator,  report 

on  I.  W.  W.,  216 
Times,  Los  Angeles,  dynamit- 
ing of  building,  175 
Toledo     (O.),     conference     of 
Labor   Reform   and   Green- 
back parties.  231 

Trade  unions,  beginnings.  29- 
39;  temporary  eclipse.  40; 
new  species  in  early  fifties. 
58-59;  organization  of 
special  trades.  60;  organiza- 
tion, 112;  conventions.  112- 
113;  local  unions,  114-16; 
characterization  of  different 
trades,  116-17;  disputes  as 
to  authority,  117-18;  ad- 
justment to  changing  condi- 
tions, 117-18;  advantages  of 
amalgamation,  119;  and 
labor  leaders,  121  el  ae<j.\ 
purpose,  168;  and  collective 
bargaining,  168-71;  ques- 
tion of  monopoly,  170-71; 
and  strikes,  173-77;  local 
autonomy,  177;  union  label, 
184-86;  restriction  of  out- 
put, 186-87;  oppose  use  of 
military.  254;  bibliographv. 
262 

Trades'  I'nion  of  the  City  and 
County  of  Philadelphia.  30 

Transportation,     demand    for 
better,  27 

Trautmann,      W.      E.,      195; 
quoted,  198 

Troy  (\.  Y.),  union  in,  34 

Tulsa    (Okla.),    treatment    of 
\.  W.  W.  in,  216 

Inemployment.in  1857,61-62; 

in   1873-74,    66;    "floaters." 

190;  a'"Qi:,'»  immigrants,  191; 

in    San     Francisco    (1877). 

238 
Union  Labor  party.   .   .>,  237; 


278 


INDEX 


t 

t 

i  '<  '  '•! 

i  If 

Si 


a  II 


Union  Labor  party — Continued 
*te  alto  National  Union 
Labor  party 

Union  of  Longshoremen,  Ma- 
rine and  Transport  Workers, 
126 

United  Association  of  Journey- 
men Plumbers.  Gas  Fitters, 
Steam  Fitters  and  Steam  Fit- 
ters' Helpers,  119 

United  Brotherhood  of  Car- 
penters, 109 

United  Brotherhood  of  Car- 
penters and  Joiners  of 
America,  110 

United  Hatters  of  North 
America,  60 

United  Labor  party,  233,  234 

United  Mine  Workers.  U2, 
117.  128-29.  177.  181 

Van  Buren.  Martin,  executive 

order  for  ten-hour  day,  51 
Van  Hise.  C.  H.,  146 
Vermont,  labor  politics.  227 
Virginia,  class  distinction  in,  20 

Wages,  beginning  of  contro- 
versy. 11-12;  in  1784.  21; 
result  of  tailors'  strike.  22; 
rise  of.  22;  in  1840.  28;  car- 
penters', 31;  strikes  to  raise, 
36;  Mooney  on  (1850).  43; 
issue,  69-70;  Paris  peace 
treaty  and.  106;  United 
Mine  Workers  and.  129; 
Arthur  and  engineers'.  142; 
Stone  and.  144;  Eastern  en- 
gineers demand  standardiza- 
tion of.  145;  Garretson  and, 
152;  brakemen's,  157;  Wil- 
kinsand.  158;  Adamson  Law 
and,  166;  further  increase 
for  railroad  employees,  167; 
Trade  unions  and,  168- 
169;  State  regulation,  250 

Walling.  W.  E.,  245 
ashington    (State),    "hobo"' 


labor  in,  190;  and  I.  W.  W.. 
216 

Washington  (D.  C),  union  in. 
84;  Knights  of  Labor.  84; 
headquarters  of  American 
Federation  of  Labor  in.  97 

Weaver.  General  J.  B.,  232. 
236 

Webb,  Sidney  and  Beatrice, 
Hittory  of  Trade  Unionitm, 
14 

Weed,  Thurlow,  24 

West  Roxbury  (Mass.),  Brook 
Farm  experiment  at,  41 

Western  Federation  of  Miners, 
174,  189,  192.  104 

Whig  party  and  ten-hour  day. 
53 

Wilkinson.  S.  E..  157 

Willard,  Daniel.  146.  149 

Wilson.  Woodrow.  quoted.  72; 
and  Clayton  Act.  100;  and 
Garretson.  152;  and  threat- 
ened strike  of  Brotherhoods 
(1916).  163-64:  and  eight- 
hour  railroad  law,  164-66 
Wisconsin,     communistic    ex- 

f>eriment>  in.  41;  eight-hour 
aw  for  women  and  children 
(1867),  71;  labor  ticket 
(1888).  237;  Socialist  j:  -rtv 
(1918),  245 

Women,  wages  in  1840,  28; 
'new  woman"  movement, 
43;  conditions  of  labor.  44- 
45;  in  factories.  54-55;  or- 
ganizations. 55-56;  Paris 
peace  treaty  and  equal  pay 
for.  107;  State  regulation  of 
labor.  250 

Wood  Workers  in  shipbuilding 
industry.  110 

Wood- Workers'  International 
Union.  125 

Wooden  Box  Makers.  110 

"Woodstock  meetings,"  226 

Working  Man's  Advocate,  The. 
223.  225 

Working  Man'n  Gazette,  iiH 


INDEX 


279 


Workingman's  partv,  220- 
221 

Workingman's  party  of  Cali- 
fornia, 239.  240 

Workman's  Trade  and  Labor 
Union  of  San  Francisco,  239 

Workmen's  compensation,  250 


Wright,  C.  D.,  report  quoted, 

187 
Wright,  Frances,  222.  225 

Youngson,  A.  B.,  143 
Youngstown  (O.),  I.  W.  W.  at, 
20« 


